Sprint to Receive “Sustainability Leadership Award” for Third Consecutive Year

Wireless carrier will be honored for its leadership in e-waste management

OVERLAND PARK, Kan. (BUSINESS WIRE), May 30, 2012 – For the third year in a row, Sprint Nextel (NYSE:S, news, filings) will receive the “Sustainability Leadership Award” at the International Electronics Recycling Conference and Expo (IERCE), taking place this week in Las Vegas. The company is being honored for its outstanding electronic waste (e-waste) management program, which focuses on the full lifecycle of the electronics it buys and sells.

Charlie Vasey, Sprint director of Network Alliances, will be among the speakers at the fourth annual conference, which serves as a networking and learning platform for executives and stakeholders in the e-waste management industry.

“Sprint is honored to once again receive this recognition from the IERCE,” said Ralph Reid, vice president-Corporate Social Responsibility. “Our management of electronic waste is part of our serious, multifaceted commitment to sustainability – which means innovating in areas including the industry’s leading buyback program¹ for wireless devices, reducing overall energy consumption and performing regular audits to ensure all vendors meet our ambitious scrapping requirements.”

Sprint’s Electronics Stewardship Policy makes it the only wireless carrier to outline specific commitments that address e-waste holistically. The company’s management of e-waste includes designing and procuring eco-friendly electronics, maximizing the equipment’s useful life, boosting collection of equipment, maximizing reuse of electronics, responsibly recycling electronic scrap, and using environmentally and socially responsible vendors for recycling. The policy – enacted in 2011 – outlines four major goals that include reaching a 90 percent collection rate for every phone Sprint sells by 2017 and collecting 100 percent of its own annual e-waste for reuse and recycling, also by 2017.

“The manner in which Sprint thinks about its electronic waste – from product design to end of life – is unique,” said Ismail Oyekan, publisher, Electronic Waste Journal, and program director, International Electronics Recycling Conference and Expo. “Sprint sets the bar high when it comes to handling electronic waste and continues to push the industry forward in best practices in this space.”

Sprint’s leadership in environmental sustainability continues to receive recognition. For the third year in a row, Sprint ranked highest among all U.S. telecom companies on Newsweek’s 2011 Rankings of America’s Greenest Companies at No. 3, up from No. 6 in 2010. Last year, Sprint was recognized by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for its commitment to phone recycling (to date, the Sprint Buyback program has kept more than 29 million phones out of landfills).

To learn more about Sprint programs that protect the environment, go to www.sprint.com/responsibility or follow @SprintGreenNews on Twitter.

¹Survey and analysis provided by Compass Intelligence was sponsored by eRecyclingCorps. Sprint’s BuyBack program is powered by eRecyclingCorps.

About Sprint Nextel

Sprint Nextel offers a comprehensive range of wireless and wireline communications services bringing the freedom of mobility to consumers, businesses and government users. Sprint Nextel served more than 56 million customers at the end of the first quarter of 2012 and is widely recognized for developing, engineering and deploying innovative technologies, including the first wireless 4G service from a national carrier in the United States; offering industry-leading mobile data services, leading prepaid brands including Virgin Mobile USA, Boost Mobile, and Assurance Wireless; instant national and international push-to-talk capabilities; and a global Tier 1 Internet backbone. Newsweek ranked Sprint No. 3 in its 2011 Green Rankings, listing it as one of the nation’s greenest companies, the highest of any telecommunications company. You can learn more and visit Sprint at www.sprint.com or www.facebook.com/sprint and www.twitter.com/sprint.

About the International Electronics Recycling Conference & Expo

IERCE is a networking and learning platform for electronics manufacturers, resellers, recyclers and other stakeholders in the electronic waste management and reverse logistics industry. The event will be held May 29-31 at the Bellagio in Las Vegas. For more information, including speakers, exhibitors and registration, visit www.electronicsrecyclingexpo.com or call 877-355-7006.

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