Module 1

In 10 years’ time, digital devices will account for nearly a quarter of global emissions, with the main contributors being mining raw materials to make the devices, transport and production.

Our devices consume natural resources

Figure 1: Metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent (Mt CO2e) footprint of the ICT industry by 2030: the challenge of combining growth with a radical reduction to half. Source: ITU-T L.1470

Assessing the environmental impact of a device

*A need for data* The impact assessment of materials, energy and related processes along the life cycle of devices improves if there is data that allows us to understand the social, environmental and economic impacts of digital devices. Often good data on e-waste does not exist, while collecting primary data from component manufacturers is time consuming and difficult (e.g. confidentiality problems occur).[8]

There are methods for assessing the environmental impacts associated with all stages of the life cycle of a digital device. A life-cycle assessment (LCA) study involves a thorough inventory of the energy, materials and emissions that are required and consumed in the manufacture or across the expected life span of a device, and is what we call a “cradle-to-grave” evaluation of all stages of the life of a digital product.[9]

It has been shown for smartphones that device production has about a 75 times higher environmental impact than a two-year-use life span,[10] as Figure 2 shows. But we also have to include the internet [11] – mobile access network, internet, server – as shown in Figure 3. Despite the variability of networks and servers in different contexts, after the impact of the production of the smartphone, data transfer has a major impact (locality, or having servers nearby, matters), followed by cloud data processing.

The environmental impact from manufacturing a device is very high compared to its use and final recycling. This tells us that using a device as long as possible is a better environmental choice than manufacturing more devices, especially those that will be discarded or replaced soon after use.

Figure 2: The global warming potential for a mobile phone with two-year use life cycle. Source: A. Andrae, Life-Cycle Assessment of Consumer Electronics

Figure 3: GHG emissions across the life cycle of a smartphone (white) including contribution from a rack server (black), network (dots) and IP core network (diagonal). Source: Suckling 2015.

Responding quicker to a crisis by reusing old computers

During the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic there was a sudden demand for computers in Europe, especially for home schooling. The usual “let’s buy them” way didn’t work: the global supply chain could not manufacture and deliver so many new computers. At the same time, many discarded but usable devices were piling up, waiting to be refurbished and reused. By using these, reuse activists could respond to the new need and prepare and distribute computers in a matter of days, while new computers took about a year to arrive, too late for the confinement period.[14]

*Club de Reparadores: Promoting a culture of repair***

By Florencia Roveri, Nodo TAU

Club de Reparadores (Repairers Club) is an initiative launched in Argentina in November 2015 by the organisation Artículo 41,^[15] with the intention of raising awareness of repair as a sustainable practice of responsible consumption. It was inspired by movements developed in other countries.

Club de Reparadores aims to promote the repair of objects (home appliances, toys, books, furniture, bikes, radios, TV sets, phones and computers, among others) to extend their useful life. It contributes to advocating a culture of repair, developing and sharing skills in repairing, and emphasising care and closeness as social values.

It has organised itinerant repair events called “clubs” in different neighbourhoods in Buenos Aires, as well as other cities such as Córdoba, Bariloche and Rosario, and supports the organisation of the events by mapping and collecting information of local repairers and other actors of the local economy. These are published on the online platform https://reparar.org.

The project is creative in messaging, which is shared widely. The events involve people of different ages – although mainly young people who work with electronics and information and communications technology (ICT) devices – and men and women in equal number.

So far, Club de Reparadores has held 64 events. These have received 2,976 products in need of repair, and involved 335 voluntary repairers and 3,471 assistants. A total of 1,934 products have been repaired in the process.

The project has had an impact in three ways: environmental, because extending the useful life of things reduces the production of new products, which in turn reduces the generation of waste and carbon emissions; economic, because the project promotes the work of the neighbourhood repairers who become key pieces in a circular economy model; and cultural, in that it challenges the consumer culture of disposable goods and programmed obsolescence, and values the traditional knowledge of repair, reinforcing collaboration and building social resilience.