400m mobile phones to be green by 2017 [Report]

Tech’s going green. It has to. Hell, the world has to. The kind of action we’re seeing now with Facebook and Google’s data centres and Microsoft pledging to become Carbon neutral is just the beginning.

In fact, the number of phones like the Samsung Replenish — made from 82% recycled materials – is set to grow more than 10 times by 2017.

UK-based tech analysis company Juniper Research, Juniper Research reckons that around 31-million ‘green’ handsets will ship this year. By 2017, it expects that number to reach 400-million. Approximately half of those, it says, will be smartphones.

The company also says that green credentials will become especially important as the smartphone market grows up. Having the right credentials can mean increased sales too.

According to Juniper Research’s Daniel Ashdown:

“Most companies have environmental strategies, but the devil is in the detail – and this where we are seeing differentiation. Our research tells us: ‘if you can’t measure it; you can’t improve it’, and understanding which of the many processes have the highest environmental impact is crucial.”

The company’s research also suggests that tech convergence could be a potential boost for the environment as people need fewer and fewer devices. Quite when that point of convergence will occur is, however, unclear.