Everyone already knows that global warming is an issue that has to be dealt with, and but no one really considers mobile phones as a heavy contributor of greenhouse gases –though it is easy to forget how big a handset’s carbon footprint truly is.

The first thing that people do not realize is that phones use energy. Sure, we charge phones on electric outlets, but the amount of energy that mobile phones consume each year is roughly the equivalent of taking an airplane ride from London to New York, and that is pretty big. Considering that almost half of the world’s population makes use of mobile handsets, the overall impact of this tiny bit of technology is actually pretty huge.

Of course, the biggest concern still lies with manufacturing. As much as usage consumes energy, even more is spent on making these handsets. This is why many mobile phone manufacturers are being ranked by order of their eco-friendliness. In fact, many companies are now trying hard to catch up with their target CO2 reduction quota –the cutoff for which is 2015.

Sony Ericsson and Nokia are currently on the extreme lead (according to Greenpeace) thanks to their efforts in changing the way the produce mobile phones.

On long standing argument against going green is that change will be expensive –what many manufacturers do not realize is that by switching to renewable energy, changing the composition of raw materials, and changing the internal policies would actually prove to be cheaper in the long run. Implementing changes costs money and resources, but the amount that would be saved later on is significantly bigger.

According to recent reports, there are over 2.7 billion handsets that are being used (some people have more than two phones so this is not a population estimate), if the users of these devices cut down on their energy usage rate, the world can save tons of energy in the process.