The challenge
The partnership
Virgin Mobile visit the Workz SIM production facility
To achieve their goals, Virgin Mobile MEA turned to twelve-year partner Workz Group with whom they have worked on a range of successful special projects through the years.
Following ecological best practices and being ISO-certified for environmental management, Workz has been increasingly implementing sustainable operations and solutions across its client base that spans over 70 countries. These include more sustainable product alternatives, recycling programmes for operational waste, employing energy-efficient sources and low emission equipment. It also offers customers supply chain analysis and guidance to reduce their carbon footprint.
As part of the ongoing project, Workz is participating in a vendor audit by Virgin Mobile MEA to ensure it meets its stringent criteria as a sustainable partner.
The solution
Virgin Mobile MEA’s sustainable SIM pack
Workz has been providing Virgin Mobile MEA sustainable alternatives across its operations since the start of its partnership and these initiatives have grown during the course of their collaboration. From an end-user perspective, it modified the product design to reduce the SIM card size, replaced plastic packaging with recycled paper, reduced collaterals and eliminated other unsustainable elements such as glue and labels. From a logistics aspect, supply chain guidance was given to utilise reusable pallets that comprised less wood than the previous packing specification with crates. In addition, Workz continued to implement additional sustainable initiatives across its production and supporting operational activities to reduce its own carbon footprint.
The results
Impact of sustainable practices
By early 2022, the resulting actions in Virgin’s case will have achieved:
- 100% elimination of single-use plastic across all Virgin Mobile MEA entities
- 75% reduction of plastic by reducing the SIM from a full credit card size to quarter card
- 35% energy saving (estimated) by using recycled paper for packaging collaterals
- 84% overall reduction in cost
Commenting on the success of the collaboration, Erik Dudman Nielsen, founder and Group CEO of Virgin Mobile MEA revealed:
“At Virgin Mobile, we’re keen to be a sustainable company and do our part to eradicate single-use plastic in our operations across the region. As our local partner, Workz has been helping us achieve that goal and we are proud to be on the verge of becoming 100% single-use plastic free across all of our owned operations in the Middle East.”
Benefits of Workz sustainable SIM solution
- Various reduced-size SIM form factors
- Recycled PVC used in SIM card body
- Recycled paper for packaging and collaterals
- Reusable wood pallets for transportation
- Supply chain optimisation to reduce carbon emissions
If you’d like to learn more about how Workz helps mobile network operator increase their sustainability then please contact us today.
