Mobile and the Environment

Somebody asked me the other day about how mobile activities in general, and mobile marketing activities specifically, are impacting the natural environment.

It's a good question. Certainly used and outdated electronic equipment such as phones, PDAs and other mobile devices leave an impact on our planet. And these days, it seems that any phone is out-of-date and will need replacing at least every two to three years. Canada has over 21 million cellular phones in service and replacing each of them every 2.5 years, on average, puts 8.4 million phones into the landfill every year.

However, each phone is capable of delivering literally millions of advertising impressions during it's 2.5 year life cycle. These impressions, if not available electronically, might otherwise be delivered via print media.

And it's not just advertising. It has been estimated that one Sunday edition printing of the New York Times consumes 75,000 trees. Over 90% of that paper ends up in a landfill, along with all the toxic inks that have been put on it. Those 75,000 trees, if left uncut, would filter 4.5 million pounds of pollutants from our atmosphere every year.

So by purchasing the mobile device such as an iPad, and canceling your daily newspaper subscription, you are helping the planet. And that's good for everybody.