Telefónica Tech, Telefónica’s digital business unit, and Éxxita Be Circular announced today the creation of the European Green Passport for electronic equipment, a new digital product to manage the complete cycle of electronic devices, with which both companies reinforce their commitment to sustainability and the circular economy.
Éxxita Be Circular, with an average of 500,000 recovered devices per year, is the leading company in the comprehensive and intelligent management of the life cycle of technological and electronic devices. Through its own Artificial Intelligence platform with more than three million previous experiences called ‘Aitana’, it establishes predictive models on repairability and recoverability that allow it to be much more agile and efficient in the process, as well as controlling the quality and management of each ‘ticket’ in real time.
The incorporation of Blockchain technology through TrustOS, the service developed by Telefónica Tech, allows the passport to be issued with a unique and verifiable reference by device, to which a QR code is assigned for quick identification and easy access to the passport. In this way, for example, each repair is registered and stamped in blockchain, guaranteeing the related information and eliminating the possibility of falsifying it in terms of both date and content.
Thanks to full traceability, together with reliable and verifiable information on durability and repairability provided by Éxxita Be Circular, the so-called European Green Tech Passport becomes a key tool for the valuation of devices and their subsequent inclusion in the refurbished market. In this way, both the guarantees offered to buyers of this type of device and the value of the device for the consumer who decides to dispose of it are significantly increased.
The new passport responds to the measures included by the European Commission in the Circular Economy Action Plan presented in March 2020 as one of the main elements of the European Green Pact, Europe’s sustainable growth agenda. As part of these measures, it is proposed to legislate for consumers to receive reliable, comparable, verifiable and relevant information on products, including information on their lifespan, to enable them to make more sustainable purchasing decisions.
The Action Plan also includes measures to ensure that companies display environmental certifications on devices, and identifies electronics and TIC as a priority sector for the implementation of the so-called “right to repair”. The European Green Pact itself mentions that “an electronic product passport could provide information on the product’s origin, composition, repair and disassembly possibilities, and end-of-life management”.
Taking into account this framework presented by the Commission, the new passport includes complete information on the device and its tracking, its technical characteristics and the state of its components. All this is possible thanks to the collaboration between the artificial intelligence platform Aitana developed by Éxxita Be Circular and its integration with leading technology manufacturers. In addition, the passport incorporates durability, repairability and sustainability metrics, as well as, if available, the Eco Rating seal or the ecological footprint of the device.
“This passport brings together all the experience and innovation that has made us a benchmark in integrated and intelligent device lifecycle management and goes a step further to empower the consumer with the information needed to definitively drive reuse and circular economy models in the tech sector,” says Alejandro Costa, CEO of Éxxita Be Circular.
José Luis Núñez, head of the blockchain business at Telefónica Tech, said: “The Green Passport is a use case where the incorporation of blockchain clearly transfers immediate value to consumers without forcing them to access sophisticated applications or enter the world of cryptocurrencies and NFTs that are now so fashionable. We demonstrate once again that blockchain is now within the reach of anyone, at street level, making solutions possible for everyone regardless of their knowledge of technology”.
Éxxita Be Circular is part of Telefónica’s open innovation ecosystem and is one of the most outstanding examples of how startups manage to do business with the company. Wayra invested in them in 2015 and since then their relationship has grown and strengthened. The company will be present at the Red.es stand at the Mobile World Congress (Hall 4, 4D100) and will participate in Wayra’s stand at 4YFN, the innovation and entrepreneurship event to be held in parallel to the MWC, from 28 February to 3 March.
For more information: Telefónica at MWC 2022
