04.01.2024

The National Authority for Management and Regulation in Communications of Romania (ANCOM) has conducted a study on the environmental impact of electronic and postal communications to identify the population’s awareness level, attitude and perceptions towards the actions meant to limit this impact.

Choice of environmentally friendly communications products and services

When choosing the electronic communications and postal services, prices and service quality are the most important elements, with grades of 8,.7 and 8.5 (on a scale from 1 to 10), while the environmental impact receives a grade of 6.2 in the users’ preferences.

63% of the respondents think that reducing the carbon footprint of electronic communications services requires first giving up old, less efficient technologies.

In the case of postal services, the use of biodegradable packaging (58% of the respondents) and electric vehicles for delivery (50% of the respondents) would have the greatest impact on the carbon footprint. A fifth of the respondents think that the additional taxation of environmentally unsustainable services would be acceptable.

The respondents would be less willing to accept a longer postal delivery time, with an average response of 6.04 out of 10.

The perceptions on the sustainability of electronic communications equipment

The majority of respondents replace their equipment every 4 years or less frequently, with laptops and computers being kept the longest. Equipment damage is the reason for the latest replacement.

The equipment items (smart phones, tablets, laptops, computers etc.) used in the last 5 years were most frequently given to relatives/friends (49%), taken to repair (47%) or recycled (32%).

When purchasing, 60% of respondents would take into account the energy class of the phone only in the conditions of a similar price. Furthermore, the cash compensation or the vouchers would positively influence the decision to recycle electronic equipment for 72% of respondents and handing over old equipment upon receipt of the new one for 59% of respondents. 

Information and responsibility

In general, the respondents consider themselves uninformed about the environmental impact of electronic and postal products and services.  

The vast majority of respondents (83%) believes that the used equipment has the greatest environmental impact for electronic communications, and the parcel packaging for postal services (73%).

The information received from family, acquaintances and friends are more reliable than that from social-media or mass-media.

The majority of respondents believes that the information on the sustainability of electronic communications or postal products/services should be regulated according to the same standards.

Perception concerning the impact of technology on activities

In general, the most useful aspect of digitalisation is connecting with other people (average 8.79), especially for the respondents aged 16-24. The respondents in the age category 45-54 years and 65+ consider that the most useful aspect of digitalisation is the easier access to culture or information (average 8.65, respectively 8.51).

Among the respondents using the internet, most of the time is devoted to work (on average, 144 minutes/day).

The market study on attitudes and perceptions regarding the sustainability of electronic communications and postal services is available here and was conducted on a nationally representative sample of 1,471 respondents, individuals aged 16+, living in Romania, both in urban and rural areas.

Additional information

A workshop on environmental sustainability of postal services took place in Bucharest, on 23 November 2023. Information on the event is available here.

The indicators for measuring the environmental sustainability of electronic communications networks and services are identified in a report available here.