Nominations for “Green Mobile Award” Announced

The GSMA has announced its five nominees for the first “Green Mobile Award” sponsored by A.T. Kearney, which will be awarded on Tuesday 17th February 2009.

CHICAGO and DÜSSELDORF, 21 January 2009 — Alcatel Lucent, Nokia Siemens Networks, Smart Communications, Telenor, and Vodafone are the nominees for the inaugural “Green Mobile Award”, a new category of GSMA's prestigious Global Mobile Awards program to be presented at the Mobile World Congress 2009 in Barcelona. The brand new “Green Mobile Award” is sponsored by A.T Kearney, Inc, a leading global management consulting firm. The award honors new and innovative concepts that help the mobile communications industry operate in a more environmentally friendly manner and contribute to the reduction of the mobile eco-system’s CO2-emissions. The nominees were selected by a panel of independent analysts, journalists, and specialist experts among a broad variety of entries.

Martin Sonnenschein, A.T. Kearney partner and global head of the firm’s Communications & High-Tech Practice, commented about the GSMA’s new award: “Regulators and consumers are challenging companies on their sustainability behavior – and companies are increasingly responding. We are very pleased about the multitude and variety of entries for the ‘Green Mobile Award,’ which clearly show that the industry is becoming increasingly aware of the relevance of sustainability and the opportunities it presents. More and more they recognize that sustainability offers a crucial factor for differentiation and an unprecedented opportunity to create lasting competitive advantage.”

The Green Mobile Award was open to all companies active in the mobile communications industry including network operators, device manufacturers and providers of end devices, services and applications. Laudable initiatives among the nominees include the deployment of alternative energy sources, new mobile services that reduce reliance on travel and procurement processes that lower equipment power requirements and the like.

The submissions have revealed a broad range of activities underway in the industry: Major equipment and handset vendors are striving to enhance the energy efficiency of their products and reduce the environmental impact of their production and business processes. Smaller vendors, who offer less power-hungry components, are switching to solar or wind energy. Major mobile operator groups pursue holistic initiatives deploying greener IT and network equipment but also reducing the energy efficiency of their office buildings or cutting emissions of company cars. Operators from developing countries, in turn, operate solar or wind powered off-grid network sites in order to reduce diesel consumption. And finally, network providers develop alternative cooling solutions and shelters that contributed to less power consumption of their network sites.

“The commitment of the candidates for the ‘Green Mobile Award’ is impressive. Still, industry-wide, a lot remains to be done to ensure the carbon balance sheet of the mobile communications industry is being sustainably improved. We have found, for example, that network sharing can considerably contribute to reduce power consumption by up to 40%. This can help mobile network operators meet their green promises even without any heavy investment. Additionally, CO2-labelling of mobile minutes can be used as a positive differentiator and a lever for positive brand building. Therein lies significant potential waiting to be tapped by companies of the mobile communications industry.” Sonnenschein concludes.

The Global Mobile Awards comprise 16 categories, including Best Mobile Entertainment, Best Mobile Services, Best Mobile Handset and Best Mobile Technologies, among many others.

The awards ceremony will be held on 17 February 2009 during the gala dinner at the Mobile World Congress in the National Palace in Barcelona. More information is available for downloading at www.globalmobileawards.com.

About A.T. Kearney
A.T. Kearney is a global strategic management consulting firm known for helping clients gain lasting results through a unique combination of strategic insight and collaborative working style. The firm was established in 1926 to provide management advice concerning issues on the CEO's agenda. Today, we serve the largest global clients in all major industries. A.T. Kearney's offices are located in major business centers in 35 countries. Further information can be found at www.atkearney.com.