Telecommunications isn’t exactly synonymous with sustainability. In fact, in ordinary years the telco sector contributes just about the same amount of greenhouse emissions as the aviation industry.
That isn’t to say that the industry is doing nothing to counteract its impact on the planet. Belong and Telstra have significantly minimised their impact by going carbon neutral, and others have put in place more sustainable practices, but one change could save thousands of tonnes of carbon emissions every year - switching to eSIM.
Minimising SIM packaging is a recurring theme across the major telcos, with Telstra, Optus, and Vodafone mentioning cutting back on SIM packaging in their sustainability reports. Both Optus and Vodafone have reported saving up to 50 tonnes of cardboard or paper waste through a SIM package redesign.
When the three major players in the Australian telco market all use SIM card packaging as a way to cut back their environmental impact, it begs the question - what would happen if we embraced eSIM, and got rid of the packaging and the SIM card entirely?
eSIM is short for Electronic or Embedded SIM. It refers to a rewritable, and permanent SIM card that is built into your phone. Using eSIM eliminates the need to physically replace your SIM card if you change phone plans or providers, the data is simply added to the SIM already inside your device.
Currently there are only five mobile providers in Australia offering eSIM, the most recent addition to this short list being felix mobile. Providing an eSIM option is just one of the telco’s green initiatives, alongside operating on 100% renewable energy, and planting a tree per month for each active subscriber.
When announcing the newly available eSIM technology, felix disclosed that if all of its subscribers used eSIM, it would have saved approximately 100 tonnes of CO2 emissions from the materials, manufacturing and transportation of these SIM cards.
While the telco declined to share current subscriber numbers, we calculated that the figure is likely close to 20,000 active subscribers, based on the reported number of trees the provider has planted in the past five months. Therefore we can determine that the production of a single SIM card is responsible for approximately 5kg of CO2 being emitted to the atmosphere.
5kg is a big number for a piece of plastic consisting of less than a centimetre of surface area. And while a single SIM card doesn’t seem like much, the telecommunications industry is a numbers game. In a competitive market people are constantly switching phone plans, more SIM cards need to be manufactured to keep up with demand, resulting in more emissions.
According to Telstra’s annual report, in 2021 the telco and its wholesale customers gained over 436,000 new subscribers. Optus (including gomo and amaysim) reported 148,800 new subscribers in the second half of 2021, and the TPG group did not disclose new subscriber numbers. Even excluding the TPG group, Telstra and the extrapolated Optus numbers account for at least 733,600 new SIM cards being distributed across Australia in 2021.
By multiplying the amount of new SIMs by the 5kg emission number, we can conservatively estimate that new SIM cards from the Australian telco market emitted around 3,668 tonnes of CO2 in 2021. In order to offset these kinds of emissions we would need to recycle an additional 1,248 tonnes of waste, or take 800 cars off the road each year.
Despite its carbon neutral certification, Telstra confirmed that this does not include the production and transportation of SIM cards. In a release the telco noted that Scope 3 emissions (which are indirect emissions from activities necessary to operate the business and provide products and services, including SIM cards), are significantly greater, and far less within the telco’s control to minimise. In spite of the challenge, Telstra does have a plan in place to reduce these Scope 3 emissions by 50% by 2030, which is more than any other telco has commited to.
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If telcos were to switch to eSIM then theoretically they could regain some of this control, cut back on costs, and emissions all at once. Australian telcos have already started to offer paperless eSIM through apps and email, but for the time being the uptake from consumers is unclear. A Telstra spokesperson told WhistleOut that around 450,000 devices are using eSIM, but this number includes wearables where a physical SIM isn’t an option. The other telcos I reached out to declined to comment.
Clearly there currently are limitations to switching to an eSIM only economy, the largest being the lack of competition in the space. None of the major telcos have opened up eSIM technology to their wholesalers yet, with the exceptions being gomo (which is owned by Optus), and felix mobile (which is owned by Vodafone). Telstra did announce that it would allow MVNOs to activate eSIM in March 2021, but that is yet to eventuate. Having just five providers offering a service isn’t great for competition, and means that users wanting to adopt the technology are severely limited.
There are also only a handful of eSIM compatible devices available in the country, but more will undoubtedly be released as time goes on. There are even rumours of an eSIM-only iPhone on the horizon. But none of this will matter if eSIM continues to be a luxury only for premium brands. The first step to upping consumer adoption is making the product more available.
Of course eSIM isn’t just a positive step for the environment, it is good for competition. The very nature of eSIM removes the pain points of changing phone plans. You’ll no longer need to search for a plan, wait for a new card in the mail, and wait hours for your number to port over - it can be done in minutes simply by downloading an app or making a purchase online. When switching plans becomes more accessible and convenient it will almost certainly lead to more competitive pricing for consumers, and to a smaller carbon footprint while we’re at it.
Edit: An earlier version of this article did not acknowledge Telstra's commitment to minimise Scope 3 emissions by 50% by 2030. We regret the error.
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