Solar Decathlon 2007

Sprint Nextel

Sprint Nextel is honored and excited to be a part of the 2007 Solar Decathlon by providing secure high-speed, wireless Internet access to the teams competing. The innovation demonstrated by teams participating in the Solar Decathlon taps into another important goal of ours—preserving the environment. From researching renewable power to recycling used cell phones, Sprint Nextel demonstrates its commitment to the environment everyday.

In our daily business activities, we actively pursue the use of renewable power technologies to better serve our customers. Telecommunications facilities rely heavily on commercial power to run their networks. However, overhead utility lines and outdoor substations are subject to both human and natural forces (such as tornadoes and lightning) that can shut down telecommunications. For this reason, back-up power sources are needed. The most commonly used forms of back-up power, such as lead-acid batteries and diesel generators, have drawbacks: noise, leakage, or polluting exhaust.

Sprint Nextel has researched several alternative power technologies that provide many benefits to the environment, including significantly reduced noise levels and pollutants. For example, one of these technologies, fuel cells, releases no pollutants. The fuel cell's only exhaust is drinkable water, which is endorsed by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Solar power is also being field-trialed at small communication sites as a way to reduce utility costs by minimizing grid usage during daylight hours.

Sprint Nextel is interested in alternative power technologies because they provide benefits to the environment and can be combined with other technologies to improve the performance of our network, which means more reliable service for our customers. As we continue to provide new and enhanced wireless applications and services, uninterrupted telecom service—both on cell phones and for wireless Internet access—becomes even more critical. At Sprint, our goal is to provide the best quality network through the use of cleaner, more efficient technology.

Sprint Wireless Recycling

Wireless recycling is an important part of Sprint Nextel's environmental commitment. In 2001, we created Sprint Project Connect, a wireless-phone recycling program that has prevented millions of phones from ending up in landfills.

Sprint Project Connect accepts all makes and models of phones, regardless of service provider. To recycle your phone, pick up a postage-paid envelope at any participating Sprint store nationwide. Or, print the postage-paid mailing label available on the Project Connect Web site.

Since 2001, Sprint has collected nearly 7 million used wireless phones and kept those phones out of the waste stream through Sprint Project Connect and other separate equipment collection efforts such as Sprint Buyback, a program that gives Sprint customers account credit for returning eligible, no-longer-used phones. The phones are either recycled or refurbished and resold.

Net proceeds from Sprint Project Connect go to benefit kindergarten through 12th-grade education programs. Since its inception, the project has raised more than $3 million for charitable programs.