Ericsson has had its efforts in environmental sustainability recognized at the Elektra 2012 European Electronics Industry Awards with the company winning the Green-Electronics Award. The Elektra awards recognize the achievements of companies and individuals throughout Europe and promote best practice in innovation, sales growth, and employee motivation. In their selection of Ericsson as the winner of the Green Electronics category, the Elektra 2012 judges were looking for evidence of new and innovative ways in which companies have developed strategies to reduce the impact on the environment of their products, manufacturing processes and commercial practices. Ericsson's focus is on reducing its environmental impact throughout the value chain, including minimizing the direct impact of its own activities, the impact of its products in operation, and by applying methods that help customers improve environmental performance. Elaine Weidman-Grunewald, Vice President Sustainability and Corporate Responsibility, Ericsson, says: "Ericsson has been an industry leader in life-cycle assessment for more than a decade, taking a systematic approach to all our activities, including raw-material extraction, manufacturing, transportation, and end-of-life treatment." Ericsson's industry-leading research tracks future trends on carbon emissions for the ICT (information and communications technology) sector, seeking innovative ways to minimize the footprint as much as possible, even in light of growing demand. The company engages in a number of research projects to drive greater energy efficiency in both fixed and wireless networks. As data traffic on mobile broadband networks grows, the ICT sector needs to increase network energy-efficiency to limit its contribution to global carbon dioxide emissions. Ericsson is deeply engaged in studying the relationship between network energy consumption and data growth to understand better key mechanisms for energy consumption in mobile networks, and how to further reduce total energy consumption of networks. Ericsson
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