The Eco Charger - 4 Billion mobile phones, just one charger
.png "Eco Charger")
In March 2009, Kondor released their
Kit Power ECO mains charger (Kondor Ltd., 2009), designed to replace standard mobile phone chargers and revolutionise the way manufacturers and consumers alike, think about the design and efficiency of mobile phone chargers,
right.
Environmental Impact
The Kit Power Eco mains charger is a mobile phone charger like any other, but offers around 90% greater efficiency than standard chargers supplied by mobile phone manufacturers (The Carphone Warehouse, 2009). This is achieved by the charger intelligently sensing a "drop in current demand from the handset" (Kondor Ltd., 2009), which occurs when the phone battery is fully charged, and shutting down, meaning that it draws far less power. It was reported that if every mobile phone user in the UK were to switch to the Eco Charger, approximately 300 million kwh of electricity could be saved per year (Knight, 2009). Given npower's current, standard electricity price of 15.918p per kwh (Npower PLC, 2009), this represents a potential, collective saving for the UK, of around £50 million per year, in electricity bills.
Product Design Principle - Delay product customization
Clearly, Kondor has heavily concentrated their designs on improving the energy efficiency, with the Eco Charger. However, I would suggest that they could have further reduce the environmental impact of their mobile phone charger by
delaying the product customization steps and as a result,
maintain the functional independence of parts. My suggestion is that they could have chosen to design interchangeable cables, to be sold separately from the transformer itself, which could connect different makes and models of phones to the same, universal charging unit. This is an idea that has already been embraced by O2, in the design of their O2 Universal Charger,
left (O2 UK Ltd., 2008).
If Kondor were to take on this approach, then they would not only be able to maintain the energy efficiency of the charger, but they would also be able to reduce the environmental impact of manufacturing the charger itself. If mobile phone users were to switch to this new charger, then they would
only need to replace the cable when they replace their mobile handset, rather than the entire charger. Considering that the transformer coils and circuitry are the most complex and account for the majority of the charger design (as can be seen
right, in the photograph of the internal components of one of my own mobile phone chargers), and that the processes used in manufacturing the circuitry and components requires a number of harmful and toxic chemicals, such as Lead, Beryllium and Arsenic to name just a few (Recycling for charities, n.d.), then much of the environmental impact associated with manufacturing the charger would be lost, simply due to the decreased demand for new transformers. As the manufacturing of the charger cable only accounts for around 10% of the total environmental impact, then I would suggest that the potential reduction in demand for transformers could theoretically, in the long term, yield somewhere in the region of a 90% decrease in the environmental impact of manufacturing these mobile phone chargers.
Supply Chain Priciple - Consignment Vendor Managed Inventory Model
Aside from this however, it would be difficult to accuse Kondor for their current choice of supply chain and its environmental affects. Currently, Kendor makes every effort to reduce the environmental impact in supplying their products, perhaps as the result of a conscious decision, but presumably also as an attempt to minimise their operating and logistical overheads. Retailers of Kondor's mobile phone accessories, who include Virgin Mobile, 3 and T-Mobile (Kondor Ltd., 2008), all conform to Kondor's
Consignment Vendor Managed Inventory (VMI) supply chain model. This has been achieved by allowing customers to order products either via an in-store or on e-commerce service that is implement and managed by Kondor. This allows Kondor to dispatch directly to the customer, utilising the UK's current postal and delivery infrastructure, thus minimising the need for batch ordering of stock to be hold in retail outlets and also decreasing the environmental impact of the consumer having to make a dedicated trip to the store (Browne, Rizet, Leonardi & Allen, 2008). This offers a significantly positive impact on the environment, especially given that in 2004, UK domestic freight transport alone, generated 33.7 million tonnes of CO
2, which roughly approximated to 21% of all CO
2 emissions for that year (
McKinnon, 2007).
Overall, I feel that Kondor should be commended for their utilisation of current technology to produce an efficient, cost effective and environmentally sound supply chain for their mobile phone accessories. However, it is clear that while their attempts to produce an energy efficient, "eco" charger are clear to see, there is still significant room for developing these ideas, and with this, a potential opportunity to change perceptions of how people should be using and re-using electronic products.
References
Browne, M, Rizet,C, Leonardi, & Allen, J. (2008).
Analysing energy use in supply chains. Retrieved May 20, 2009, from
http://www.greenlogistics.org/SiteResources/bcf4484f-4fd2-45b2-954a-d77de10951d9_LRN%202008%20-%20Supply%20chain.pdf
Kelly, G. (2008).
O2 Launches Energy Efficient Phone Charger. Retrieved May 13, 2009, from
http://www.trustedreviews.com/peripherals/news/2008/12/03/O2-Launches-Energy-Efficient-Phone-Charger/p1
Knight, T. (2009).
KIT Eco Charger for Nokia: Green, clean, and cheap!. Retrieved May 20, 2009, from
http://www.electricpig.co.uk/2009/02/24/kit-eco-charger-for-nokia-from-carphone-warehouse/
Kondor Ltd.. (2008).
Branded In-Store E-Commerce Solutions. Retrieved May 20, 2009, from
http://www.kondor.co.uk/instore.php
Kondor Ltd.. (2009).
Kondor launch Eco charger in partnership with CPW. Retrieved May 13, 2009, from
http://www.kondor.co.uk/assets/PR/ecocharger.pdf
McKinnon, A. (2007).
CO2 Emissions from Freight Transport in the UK. Retrieved May 20, 2009, from
http://www.cfit.gov.uk/docs/2007/climatechange/pdf/2007climatechange-freight.pdf
Mobile News. (n.d.).
Dextra hired guns to lead new Kondor handset arm. Retrieved May 19, 2009, from
http://www.mobilenewscwp.co.uk/archive/48280/dextra_hired_guns_to_lead_new_kondor_handset_arm.html
Morris, J. (2009).
Go green with The Carphone Warehouse. Retrieved May 20, 2009, from
http://www.whatmobile.net/News/accessories/206049/go_green_with_the_carphone_warehouse.html
Npower PLC. (2009) .
Prices in your area. Retrieved May 20, 2009, from
https://www.npower.com/at_home/savings_calculator/UnitPrices.aspx
O2 UK Ltd.. (2008).
O2 cuts energy wastage.... Retrieved May 13, 2009, from
http://mediacentre.o2.co.uk/content/Detail.asp?ReleaseID=414&NewsAreaID=2
Recycling for charities. (n.d.).
E-waste Environmental Effects. Retrieved May 20, 2009, from
http://www.recyclingforcharities.com/Environmental-Effects-of-E-Waste.php
The Carphone Warehouse. (2009).
ECO Mains Charger. Retrieved May 13, 2009, from
http://www.carphonewarehouse.com/eco
