Mobile phone vendor Nokia is promoting a campaign in Indonesia called “Give and Grow 2011: Give Mobile Phones, Grow Trees.” The program aims to tackle two problems at once: 1) It collects old mobile phones from the public so that they can be recycled, and 2) It promotes environmental awareness by planting a tree in the name of the individual who donated his or her phone. The program was actually first implemented in 2009 and received a positive response from local communities.
To collect old handsets, Nokia provides drop-boxes at 90 Nokia Service Center locations where customers can donate their used mobiles. These phones will be recycled by TES AMM, an electronics recycling company. For each cell phone donated, Nokia will provide a new tree seedling to be planted in the Watershed Ciliwung River, Bogor, West Java.
“This program will dedicate 10,000 trees to be planted on behalf of consumers who participate,” said Bob McDougall, Country Manager Nokia Indonesia.
Everyone who participates in this campaign will be given a certificate from Nokia and the WWF. The certificate also lists the coordinates of trees planted, so that the owner can monitor the progress of the tree through the Nokia Ovi Maps application, or via the company’s My New Trees website.
The Minister of Forestry, Zulkifli Hasan, was quite excited by this green campaign:
Planting 10,000 trees in the watershed Ciliwung can help to achieve the target of planting 500 million trees this year, in accordance to the government’s plan Indonesia Planting movement.”
He hopes 10.000 trees will be planted in the Ciliwung River Water District by November 2011.
In addition to this green campaign, Nokia is active in the community in other ways. Previously it launched Nokia Life Tools in several countries including Indonesia and India, aiming to improve the quality of life by promoting knowledge exchange through short messages among people in remote areas.
Nokia Still Relevant in Asia
While Nokia is clearly on a downslide in Western markets, it should be pointed out that the company is still doing well in Asia for the time being. At the recent Global Mobile Internet Conference 2011 Stephen Goh, the CEO of mig33 stated that “The number one phone in the world is not the iPhone. It’s the Nokia N70”
According to a survey by TNS Global last year, Nokia is among the top recognized brands in the region. In fact, among this group of 3000 respondents, it’s the top brand. We visualized their results below:
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