The Swedish IT and telecom industry, which is highly internationalized through both ownership and operations, has been working for many years to adapt products and related services, and to meet the environmental and sustainability requirements set by both legislation and the market. In addition, the Swedish IT and telecom industry is part of a number of collaborations with public actors, other industry segments and non-profit organizations to drive the sustainability issue in the right direction for the benefit of society and the end user.

A good example of self-regulation and international agreements is the IT environmental declaration that has been systematically developed since the mid-1990s by the industry itself and which, since 2006, has been an international standard via ECMA (ECMA-370). The purpose of the declaration is to communicate, in a standardized way, the environmental content of products that are requested in, for example, public procurement. The content of the declaration should reflect the legislation, standardization and guidelines that apply internationally. The declaration covers chemicals, energy consumption, recycling, emissions, noise, packaging materials, etc. and the requirements are clear about the way in which the information is to be presented and the type of certificate from the manufacturer. This makes information from different manufacturers comparable and transparent.

Since 2007, a similar environmental declaration has also been available for printer supplies, such as ink and toner. The environmental declaration contains answers to the vast majority of customers' questions.

What is Sustainable IT?