Bangladesh’s largest mobile phone operator Grameenphone has been accorded the Green Mobile Award for its Climate Change programmes.
The prize was handed over at the Global Mobile Award prize ceremony at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona on Tuesday.
“It’s a great honour receiving this prestigious award on behalf of all employees of Grameenphone,” said Vivek Sood, CEO of Grameenphone, in a statement congratulating all his collegues.
According to him, the award was the result of extensive efforts to utilise energy with more efficiency in order to reduce negative environmental effects stemming primarily from carbon emission. “This is not the end of our journey, but a recognition of our continuing effort. We also acknowledge support from Telenor Group in these efforts,” he said.
The Climate Change Program was initiated by the operator in 2010, with the objective of minimising the negative environmental impact on the community through CO2 emission and burning of fossil fuel.
Tanveer Mohammad, Chief Technical Officer of Grameenphone, received the award on behalf of the company.
Jon Fredrik Baksaas, Chairman of GSMA and President and CEO of Telenor, was also present at the function.
GSMA has declared 32 awards in different categories this year.
While launching the Climate Change Program, Grameenphone adopted Environmental Management Systems (EMS) approach which laid out the policy framework to look for continual improvement in every other area. The programme started with a network swap through which power consumption was reduced significantly by opting for lower power consuming BTS and replacing all air conditioners in BTS sites.
Employing new and more efficient BTS has also enabled use of solar power in all sites, a conscious move towards renewable power sources.
Having a greener workplace in GPHouse (the operator’s headquarters) has contributed to better conservation of valuable resources like paper and water, Grameenphone said.
GSMA CEO John Hoffman said: “Now in the 19th year, the Global Mobile Awards once again showcase the outstanding level of innovation and creative products and services being developed across a diverse and growing industry.”
“With more than 680 high calibre entries this year, the competition was stronger than ever and it is a significant achievement to have been honoured today,” he said.
He said the GSMA would like to warmly congratulate all Global Mobile Awards winners and recognise all those who took part for continuing to drive mobile communications into the future.
From Telenor’s perspective, another venture also won awards in the gala event. Telenor Pakistan won two awards; one in “Best NFC/Mobile Money Product or Service” category and another in “Best Mobile Product or Service for Women in Emerging Markets” category jointly with Tameer Micro Finance Bank for Easypaisa.
This year, some other highlighted awards are “Best Low-Cost Smartphone (sub-$150 wholesale price)” went to Nokia Lumia 520. The company also won the “Best Entry-Level or Featurephone” award.
