Talk about great idea and horrible timing. Economy is weak to say it mildly. Consumers are stretched and companies are scaling back in an unprecedented way. So who cares for new shiny green widget? At the Mobile World Congress, going on in Barcelona, Spain, Nokia and Motorola are showcasing  green mobile handsets.

In a marketplace, which is still divided over the question of cost effectiveness of green technologies, Nokia and Motorola are going in for the gentle hype to establish leadership on clean technology. Nokia has been successfully running recycling campaign for quite some time.

Nokia with 5630 Xpress Music Machine and Motorola with MOTO W233 Renew are reaching out to niche segment. From New York Times:

[Nokia] features include a light sensor that detects natural light, allowing the phone to save energy. Most Nokia phones now beep when they are fully charged, alerting the owner to detach the charger from the wall socket.

Motorola will be displaying its MOTO W233 Renew, which was released this month in the United States. The W233 is made using plastic from recycled water bottles and can itself be entirely recycled. The phone costs $9.99 with a two-year contract and for now can be bought only through T-Mobile. The phone is also sold in packaging made of 100 percent recycled paper and includes a prepaid shipping envelope for buyers to send in their old mobile phone for recycling.

Ericsson’s GreenHeart project is a step in the same direction – project designed more to demonstrate corporate commitment and less driven by revenue objectives:

The GreenHeart™ is a full concept with all life cycle in mind. It includes features such as bio-plastic housings, recycled plastic keypads, zero charger with 3.5mW standby power, HTML based e-manuals, a game style educational application ‘Ecomate’ and environmentally conscious packaging. Once the technology reaches maturity, new techniques and materials will then be included in the portfolio and a market wide launch. One ‘eco’ product by itself will not make a difference but by learning through this concept study we are ensuring the entire portfolio in future will be more sustainable

Apple, with all it’s big claim on general green computing, is yet to make a clean statement on iPhone’s footprint.

What mobile industry needs is a common taxonomy and common  benchmarking framework for mobile handsets. This is essential for companies to procure mobile handsets on cost and energy efficiency basis.

[Picture courtsey NYT]

Mobile service carriers are hopping on green bandwagon faster than the speed at which Angelina Jolie is adopting kids. It’s fast and furious, to add one more cliche. Nokia announced their green campaign ‘Take Back’ recently to promote handset recycling.

Today TMONews is reporting that T-Mobile is ‘leaking’ news of it’s environmentally responsible MOTO W233:

“Exclusively from T-Mobile, the environmentally responsible MOTO W233 Renew is uniquely designed to reduce environmental impact by using sustainable materials in its design and packaging while at the same time delivering performance and quality customers rely on”

Motorola was already doing lot of green programs. It’s trademarked program Race to Recycle is targeted towards school going kids and colleges. Seems this project is coming out of their corporate social responsibility budget. Part of the proceeds from recycle program goes to participating schools and colleges.

With green issues coming to center stage, my guess is T-Mobile, along with Motorola, is repackaging old stuff into new green washed packaging.

It’s almost like race to green washing.

Will you buy T-Mobile service just because they claim green credentials? I doubt most customers will fall for this. It’s hard to appreciate carrier’s green credentials if they fail the basic can-you-hear-me-now test.