Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications is a global provider of mobile multimedia devices, including feature-rich phones, accessories and PC cards. The products combine powerful technology with innovative applications for mobile imaging, music, communications and entertainment.

The company was established in 2001 and is a joint venture between Sony Corporation and Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson. Sony E ricsson is located at different places around the globe with management based in London and R&D in Sweden, UK, France, Netherlands, India, Japan, China and the US. Most of the production is located to Asia, both within Sony Ericsson and for our suppliers.

Different components, made by a variety of suppliers in diverse parts of the world, make up our handsets and accessories. We act on a global market where our products can be found in most parts of the world.

At Sony Ericsson, we believe that sustainable development and production is one of the most important challenges for the future and that it is a challenge that requires immediate action from the industry. Our mission is to reduce the use of harmful substances in our products and thereby provide our customers and end users with the most environmentally friendly products on the market. In order to fulfil our mission, we strive to identify and eliminate those substances that may constitute a risk for human health and the environment, and replace them with safer alternatives.

Some examples in working proactively, is the work we have been doing in phasing out substances of concern.

One of the substance categories that have been highlighted in media, by authorities and by environmental organisations is brominated flame retardants. These compounds are used to, among all, to make articles flame proof and prevent fires to break out. This is of course a very important aspect to electronic products, but some of the brominated flame retardants have been identified as hazardous for health and the environment, while others are suspected to have harmful properties. When the EU-RoHS directive went into effect, some flame retardants where banned to be used in electronic products, but at Sony Ericsson we did not want substances in our products that could constitute a risk for the environment or our consumers.

We have therefore continuously been phasing out halogenated flame retardants in our products. Where there have been readily available alternatives, we have phased out these flame retardants and replaced them with safer alternatives. Together with suppliers, we have constantly been working on finding alternatives to halogenated flame retardants for all applications in mobile phones and accessories. This has resulted in that from the 1 January 2008, we will be totally free from all halogenated flame retardants in all our new products placed on the market globally.

Further on, we have taken actions regarding Polyvinyl Chloride (PVC) that have been discussed due to its chemical properties. When PVC is burning, it leads to the creation of hydrochloric acid, but also dioxins. D ioxins are one of the most toxic substances known, and is readily accumulated in the fat of animals, especially fatty fishes such as Salmon. Dioxins are known mutagens and carcinogens and also cause serious skin diseases.

Due to its properties, we have worked hard to find alternatives to PVC and now most Sony E ricsson products are free from PVC. The only exemption is some early model chargers and accessories that still have some PVC in cables, but we are striving to phase out these as soon as possible.

At Sony Ericsson we are monitoring new information regarding the properties of the substances used in our products. To be able to reach our environmental targets, we work together with our suppliers of components, to identify components where substances of concern are used and to phase out these substances from our products. We believe, that to make a good job, we have to work in close cooperation with partners and suppliers and to give these the support, information and education in matters related to chemicals management and environment to reach the goals we have set.

To inform and help our suppliers to understand our requirements, we arrange workshops and training sessions on environmental issues regarding substances. These sessions are held with individual suppliers, on site when needed, where we in detail can discuss challenges and potential solutions to them. These face to face meetings result in mutual confidence and trust, and help both us as a global provider of mobile devices and our suppliers to develop and increase our knowledge of the products we are producing.

To be able to have full disclosure of the material content of our products, we have introduced a system to obtain material declarations for all components and parts in our products. The system we are using is fully automated and gives us the benefit to have total control of the substances used in our products. By this, we
are further strengthening our objective to reduce phase out unwanted substances in our products.

The Sony Ericsson environmental team is always prepared to answer questions from suppliers and to give support to jointly solve issues related to development and production of the most environmentally friendly mobile phones. Future challenges for our company are, amongst others, to phase out beryllium and its compounds, antimony and its compounds and phthalates.

Our experience shows that innovative design and technologies is not in contradiction with environmental progress and awareness. We believe we all have to act preventatively to reach a sustainable use of natural resources and a sound environment.