Sprint will be one of the first companies to use AirCarbon, a carbon-negative material made from greenhouse gas instead of petroleum, to create plastic products.
The material will be used in black and pink cell phone cases, available later this month, for the iPhone 5 and iPhone 5s.
Sprint says it is the first telecommunications company in the world to launch a carbon-negative product using AirCarbon.
The material, AirCarbon, is manufactured by California-based Newlight Technologies. The company uses a proprietary carbon capture process to convert air and GHGs into a plastic that has similar durability and performance characteristics to petroleum-based plastics. The conversion technology can synthesize high-performance thermoplastics from a wide range of sources, including methane and/or carbon dioxide from agricultural operations, water treatment plants, landfills, anaerobic digesters, or energy facilities. AirCarbon has wide applications, as it can then be formed and molded into almost any given design.
AirCarbon is an independently verified, cradle-to-grave (including all energy inputs, transportation, and end-of-life) carbon-negative material, quantifiably reducing the amount of carbon in the air in every ounce of AirCarbon produced.
The weight of the new cell phone case is the same weight in carbon (as CO2egreenhouse gas) that has been sequestered and would otherwise be part of the air by making the case, generating a net positive environmental impact, Sprint says.
Sprint won a 2014 Climate Leadership Award for supply chain leadership. The EPA says the winners’ approaches to reducing carbon pollution demonstrate that efforts to address climate change are repaid by saving money and energy, while supporting more livable and resilient communities.
