Nokia, Motorola, Panasonic Mobile Communications, France Telecom/Orange, Vodafone, TeliaSonera AB, Intel, Epson and other technology companies have joined with the Finnish environment authority, UK's DEFRA, the World Wildlife Fund and the European Commission to propose new initiatives for mobile technology that aid the environment.

The initiatives break down into the following categories:

*energy consumption
*eliminating the use of specific materials of concern
*improving the amount of phones collected through take-back schemes and recycled
*giving consumers more environmental information about products

On energy consumption alone, the figures are worth paying attention to:

Nokia estimates that if this measure led to only 10% of the world's mobile phone users turning off the electricity supply to the chargers after use this would save enough energy in one year to power 60,000 European homes annually.

Thanks to Slashphone for the story.