Nokia Mobile to begin selling refurbished devices

HMD Global, the Nokia brand licensee for phones and tablets, has released its Sustainability Progress Report 2023, which includes some interesting things about the company. The report focuses on the company’s approach to sustainability (of course!), and it’s easy to see that HMD is focused on the sustainable production of its products, just as many other companies are doing today.

While I am not a fan of removing charging bricks from smartphone packaging, I do like the idea of planting a tree with every Nokia device purchased. According to HMD, over 418,000 trees have been planted to date, and the idea has spread from the UK to other markets like the Netherlands, Italy and Germany. However, this has cost us the classic Nokia WH -108 headphones, as Nokia has traded the headphones in the boxes for planted trees as part of a partnership with Ecologi. I do not mind since I mostly use BT headphones now, but I have a whole collection of headphones rotting in a drawer with cables 🙂

After reaching Ecovadis Gold Award in 2021, HMD got the Ecovadis Platinum Award in 2022 which recognises the company’s commitment to sustainable practices and places HMD Global in the top 1% of businesses globally.

To show that the circular economy is not just modern demagoguery, HMD has joined the European take-back programme for recycling old devices. The company also plans to start selling remanufactured Nokia phones in the second quarter of 2023. The company plans to allow consumers to buy used devices, initially in the UK and Germany, with plans to expand to other markets. This is definitely a good way of getting a phone which works well for all the unneedy users at a lower price. I’m thinking that G42 and X30, or G60 might be a nice choice in this process.

Phones won’t be only sold for profit. HMD also donates returned and refurbished phones to charity so they do not end up in landfills (or in someone’s drawer). Through its partnership with The Unconnected charity, HMD has donated 700 phones to digitally disadvantaged people. Thanks to their partnership with ClearRivers, they have also helped remove 3.5 tonnes of plastic from rivers. Trade In, Circular are great ways to do business and I only wish their efforts were more visible in more markets in the EU or around the world.

Read more stuff by downloading the report here.

 

Thanks Luke for the info!