![Sustainable electronics](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e3/Sustainable_electronics.jpeg)
Sustainable electronics are
electronic products made with no
toxic chemicals, recyclable parts, and reduced
carbon emissions
Greenhouse gas emissions from human activities strengthen the greenhouse effect, contributing to climate change. Most is carbon dioxide from burning fossil fuels: coal, oil, and natural gas. The largest emitters include coal in China and larg ...
during production. "Sustainability is still very new, emerging business concept. Because of that, we lack uniform guidelines or standards applicable per industry sector that can help companies establish best practices."
Brands
According to
Rank a Brand Electronics Green Fair Ranking Report in 2014, none of the electronic brands met all of their green requirements for level A. The only company to reach level B was
Fairphone
Fairphone is a Dutch electronics manufacturer that designs and produces smartphones with the goal of having a lower environmental footprint and better social impact than is common in the industry. In particular, the company aims to minimize the ...
, who met 60% of their standards. Level C was awarded to Apple and Nokia with 45% and 40% respectively.
The majority of the researched electronic brands were put into level D. These brands include
Sony
, commonly stylized as SONY, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. As a major technology company, it operates as one of the world's largest manufacturers of consumer and professional ...
,
Acer,
Dell
Dell is an American based technology company. It develops, sells, repairs, and supports computers and related products and services. Dell is owned by its parent company, Dell Technologies.
Dell sells personal computers (PCs), servers, data ...
,
HP,
Samsung
The Samsung Group (or simply Samsung) ( ko, 삼성 ) is a South Korean multinational manufacturing conglomerate headquartered in Samsung Town, Seoul, South Korea. It comprises numerous affiliated businesses, most of them united under the ...
,
Motorola
Motorola, Inc. () was an American Multinational corporation, multinational telecommunications company based in Schaumburg, Illinois, United States. After having lost $4.3 billion from 2007 to 2009, the company split into two independent p ...
,
Philips
Koninklijke Philips N.V. (), commonly shortened to Philips, is a Dutch multinational conglomerate corporation that was founded in Eindhoven in 1891. Since 1997, it has been mostly headquartered in Amsterdam, though the Benelux headquarters i ...
,
Blackberry
The blackberry is an edible fruit produced by many species in the genus ''Rubus'' in the family Rosaceae, hybrids among these species within the subgenus ''Rubus'', and hybrids between the subgenera ''Rubus'' and ''Idaeobatus''. The taxonomy of ...
,
Lenovo
Lenovo Group Limited, often shortened to Lenovo ( , ), is a Chinese Multinational corporation, multinational technology company specializing in designing, manufacturing, and marketing consumer electronics, Personal computer, personal computers, ...
,
Toshiba
, commonly known as Toshiba and stylized as TOSHIBA, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. Its diversified products and services include power, industrial and social infrastructure system ...
. They met less than 35% of the Rank a Brand criteria. Rank a Brand generalizes their findings into 4 main categories: reporting on sustainability, climate protection, ecology, and fair labor. All brands report on sustainability. Nokia is the top brand for climate protection, and Fairphone is the top brand for both ecology and fair labor.
Apple
An apple is an edible fruit produced by an apple tree (''Malus domestica''). Apple fruit tree, trees are agriculture, cultivated worldwide and are the most widely grown species in the genus ''Malus''. The tree originated in Central Asia, wh ...
, although criticized for their sustainability efforts, is a strong second in all of these categories apart from ecology.
Companies who receive an E label are stamped with Electronic
Greenwashing
Greenwashing (a compound word modeled on "whitewash"), also called "green sheen", is a form of advertising or marketing spin in which green PR and green marketing are deceptively used to persuade the public that an organization's products, aims ...
Alert, which means that consumers can not clearly find or understand their sustainability information and might find themselves confused or misguided.
Use of hazardous chemicals
Many hazardous chemicals and materials are used in the production of electronics. These substances are further outlined in this page about
electronic waste substances.
No brand in 2014 had completely eliminated use of
Phthalate
Phthalates (, ), or phthalate esters, are esters of phthalic acid. They are mainly used as plasticizers, i.e., substances added to plastics to increase their flexibility, transparency, durability, and longevity. They are used primarily to soften ...
s,
beryllium
Beryllium is a chemical element with the symbol Be and atomic number 4. It is a steel-gray, strong, lightweight and brittle alkaline earth metal. It is a divalent element that occurs naturally only in combination with other elements to form mi ...
,
antimony
Antimony is a chemical element with the symbol Sb (from la, stibium) and atomic number 51. A lustrous gray metalloid, it is found in nature mainly as the sulfide mineral stibnite (Sb2S3). Antimony compounds have been known since ancient time ...
,
BFRs, and
PVC in their productions, but
Nokia
Nokia Corporation (natively Nokia Oyj, referred to as Nokia) is a Finnish multinational corporation, multinational telecommunications industry, telecommunications, technology company, information technology, and consumer electronics corporatio ...
and
Motorola
Motorola, Inc. () was an American Multinational corporation, multinational telecommunications company based in Schaumburg, Illinois, United States. After having lost $4.3 billion from 2007 to 2009, the company split into two independent p ...
have the best track record by eliminating 3 out of 5 above mentioned chemicals.
Benefits
"Sustainable
ICT
ICT may refer to:
Sciences and technology
* Information and communications technology
* Image Constraint Token, in video processing
* Immunochromatographic test, a rapid immunoassay used to detect diseases such as anthrax
* In-circuit test, in ...
will enable us to protect and enhance human health and well-being and the environment over generations while minimizing the adverse life-cycle impacts of devices, infrastructure and services."
Electronics contain many chemicals that are known to cause issues with human health. A lot of these chemicals also easily seep into the environment, whether it be in soil, water or the air. A lot of e-waste is exported to third world countries such as
China
China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...
and
India
India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...
, where the waste is put in a landfill and the chemicals are allowed to seep into the environment. In the U.S. in 2011 only about 25% of e-waste was actually recycled. By using sustainable electronics principles, such as Green Engineering, chemicals can be prevented from entering electronics in the first place, or can be removed properly once a product has reached the end of its life cycle.
The generation of natural bio-composites based electronics would remove the need for corrosive acids, currently used in
Electronic waste
Electronic waste or e-waste describes discarded electrical or electronic devices. Used electronics which are destined for refurbishment, reuse, resale, salvage recycling through material recovery, or disposal are also considered e-waste. Informa ...
recycling to recover precious metals. In developing countries, the use of these chemicals is very common as it is cheap, however. These acids, primarily hydrochloric acid and nitric acid, create massive amounts of leaching which require further processing to prevent pollution. Their unregulated use is harmful for both the environment and the workers that utilize it. The use of bio generated composites removes the need for acid digestion in the recycling process as current plastic based recycling methods suffice at collecting the recoverable metals.
Green engineering is the process of using sustainable materials and methods to create products that can be used for long periods of time and can be taken apart and reused; ultimately fostering a sustainable way to build and use technology. Green engineering works to find solutions to the waste and hazardous materials that are frequently used in the building of technology today. The goals of green engineering are to use materials that will “conserve and improve natural ecosystems while protecting human health and well-being.”
[{{Cite web, url=https://www.epa.gov/green-engineering, title=About Green Engineering, date=17 August 2016, website=EPA.gov] Along with this, the EPA wants to have incentives to motivate companies and developers to have green engineering in mind when they produce their products. They want green engineering to become the norm as technology moves forward. The development of green engineering across communities and across the globe will promote a more sustainable way of life as humans continue to rely on technology to improve their daily lives.
Organizations
*
Seri
Seri or SERI may refer to:
People
*Jean Michaël Seri, an Ivorian professional footballer Places
*Seri Yek-e Zarruk, Iran
*Seri, Bheri, Nepal
*Seri, Karnali, Nepal
*Seri, Mahakali, Nepal
*Seri, Raebareli, a village in Uttar Pradesh, India
Oth ...
*
SEI
*
Sage
Sage or SAGE may refer to:
Plants
* ''Salvia officinalis'', common sage, a small evergreen subshrub used as a culinary herb
** Lamiaceae, a family of flowering plants commonly known as the mint or deadnettle or sage family
** ''Salvia'', a large ...
*
EPA
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is an independent executive agency of the United States federal government tasked with environmental protection matters. President Richard Nixon proposed the establishment of EPA on July 9, 1970; it be ...
*
EPAT
References
Electronics manufacturing
Electronics and society
Electronics and the environment