UL Environment, a division of UL (Underwriters Laboratories), a global safety science leader, announced today that Samsung’s Galaxy S8 (SM-G950U) / Galaxy S8+ (SM-G955U) mobile phones achieved ECOLOGO Gold Certification to the ANSI/UL 110 Standard for Sustainability for Mobile Phones, which was recently approved as an American National Standard by the Standards Technical Panel.
The UL 110 standard was published as an ANSI standard on March 24, 2017. New criteria in the standard include a substitutions assessment, evaluation of post-consumer recycled and bio-based plastics content in accessories, reduction of energy consumption of battery charging systems, notification regarding and the identification of materials and components requiring selective treatment, and the availability of product Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) third-party verification or making LCA publicly available. Updated criteria include evaluation of the post-consumer recycled and bio-based plastics content in the mobile phone, external power supply energy efficiency, evaluation of primary recyclers’ third-party certification, ease of disassembling the mobile phone, environmentally preferable paper/paperboard in POS packaging and improved packaging efficiency.
“UL Environment congratulates Samsung on being the first manufacturer to certify products to the new ANSI/UL 110 standard,” said Alberto Uggetti, vice president and general manager, UL Environment. “It is another in a series of firsts for UL Environment and Samsung, starting with the certification of Samsung’s Replenish mobile phone to the first ANSI/UL 110 standard, and now achieving ECOLOGO Gold Certification to ANSI/UL 110 as an ANSI standard.”
In addition to new and revised criteria, ECOLOGO Certification to ANSI/UL 110 now has three certification tiers: Bronze, Silver, and Gold. Samsung achieved Gold certification based upon their fulfillment of two new criteria in the standard.
“Samsung is pleased to be the first manufacturer to achieve ECOLOGO Gold Certification to the newly approved ANSI/UL 110 standard for our Galaxy 8 and 8+ mobile phones,” said Sangkyu Lee, Senior Vice President of Mobile Communications, Samsung Electronics. “ We achieved certification due in part to the inclusion of 20 percent post-consumer recycled plastic content in the housing of the external power supply and the fact that Samsung conducted an LCA for the product based on a total of 12 environmental impact categories. These steps demonstrate Samsung’s continued commitment to reduce the environmental impact of our products.”
A new mobile phone category on the EPEAT Registry, based on the new ANSI/ UL 110 standard, is anticipated to be available to purchasers on July 1, 2017, and Samsung will pursue inclusion in the Registry when it is open.
Samsung’s ANSI/ UL 110 certified phones are featured in SPOT, UL’s sustainable product database.
