A Business Model in Need of An Upgrade:
The Hidden Costs of Electronics Production
In the span of but a few decades, the Information Technology sector has transformed our world in ways that once belonged only to the realm of science fiction. These remarkable innovations have reshaped how we speak to one another, how we seek knowledge, and how we pass the time from the most distant corners of the globe to the palms of our hands.
Yet, beneath this dazzling surface lies a less visible, more troubling story. The very devices that empower our modern lives are built upon an industrial system that harkens back to an earlier era a linear model of endless production and consumption. It is a system that extracts far more than it returns, often at great cost to the natural world and the workers who bear the burden of its output.
Short term gains are prioritised. Shareholders are satisfied. But the planet the only one we know pays the price.
Some pioneers within the sector have begun to acknowledge this reality, taking the first tentative steps toward a more sustainable future. But for most, the path remains unchanged. Decisions made in design rooms and boardrooms continue to fuel environmental degradation, locking us into a cycle that cannot be sustained.
Time to Re-Think IT
Billions of electronics are being made, sold, and disposed of every year—a cycle that drives short-term profits for electronics manufacturers, but at too high a cost for the planet we all share.
Mining for essential and finite raw materials often endangers workers and leaves the Earth irreversibly scarred. Coal-powered manufacturing contributes to rising global temperatures and the devastating impacts of climate change.
The companies that are designing and manufacturing our devices must take into account the significant impacts they are having on our planet and the increasing demand from the public to define innovation not by fewer millimeters and more megapixels, but by how they are made with renewable energy, reusable materials, and long-lasting design.
Resolving the pollution problems created along the complex supply chain will not happen overnight, but it must begin at once. Fortunately, disrupting the status quo is nothing new to the IT sector. Now is the time for the tech sector to channel its expertise into reinventing the way that electronic devices are made and used in society, to reverse the ever increasing consumption of the planet’s finite resources and reliance on fossil fuels, creating a circular and renewably powered business model that other sectors can follow.
One of the best articles on electronics manufacturers.
Greener-electronics
GreenPeace
#cleantech
