Interview
We caught up with Daniel Hernandez Ortega, SVP Devices and Consumer IoT at Telefonica, to discuss the company’s sustainability initiatives and how they are putting more control in the hands of the consumer
In 2024, customers are more sustainability conscious than ever, having an increasingly strong grasp of the environmental impact their decisions make both in their business and personal lives. As Ortga points out, this increasing awareness is gradually being reflected in consumer device choices too.
“Customers are more and more aware of the sustainability challenges and issues. We believe that 40–60% of the people are willing to buy refurbished products,” he explained.
But while consumer sentiment around recycling, refurbishment, and reuse are improving, the desire for the latest, state-of-the-art devices is as strong as ever. AI – perhaps the largest theme of all at Mobile World Congress this year – is a great example of just such a trend, with the proliferation of AI apps and services set to play a huge role in driving the uptake of next generation devices.
For Ortega, however, the incoming device boom coming from AI need not be a negative from a sustainability perspective. Instead, the influx of new devices can be a major accelerator for a more circular device economy.
“AI is going to be a catalyst of change as well. Products of the older generation, which are not AI enabled, are going to be surpassed from a customer experience point of view,” Ortega explained. “So, bringing your old tech, recycling it, and doing a switch-up to a new generation of devices is going to accelerate.”
“It’s a flywheel effect,” he continued. “There are more and more customers trading in their products, so there are more players offering second-hand products, which then gives more choice to customers. There is a really positive momentum around it right now.”
Indeed, alliances between vendors and operators focussed on device sustainability are gaining momentum. The Eco Rating consortium, for example, currently has 11 operators, including Telefonica, and more than 20 vendors working together to label their products in a uniform way regarding carbon footprint. In this way, customers can become better educated about the impact that their choice of smartphone has on the environment.
In fact, Telefonica is even going one step further, with their Living Apps giving customers not only more information about their device’s carbon emissions, but a way to make more sustainable decisions and support sustainability projects.
“All Telefonica products and services generate a carbon footprint – with tokenomics and blockchain, we’ve given our customers an opportunity to compensate their carbon footprint with the tokens they generated through the use of our services,” he explained, noting that these could be spent on a wide range of sustainability projects around the world, from reforestation efforts to ocean clean up. “The customers can then contribute back to the environment.”
You can watch our full interview with Ortega from the link below: