Professor Melissa Gregg joined BDFI with a mission to inspire design and engineering priorities that suit our climate futures. She explains how this starts with using the digital resources we already have to avoid carbon emissions and build a circular economy for electronics.
For the past decade, I worked as a Senior Principal Engineer at Intel Corporation in the US, where I led user experience research in the client architecture team in the PC product group.
While working on Project Athena – the innovation program that led to the Intel EVO brand – I started noticing a change in attitudes among study participants in my team’s ethnographic research.
In Europe especially, laptop users were frustrated that tech companies forced them to upgrade their devices so often – a process known as “planned obsolescence.” For young people looking to buy quality products with credible sustainability features, the choices were few. Some even wanted to buy second hand devices in an effort to maintain their environmental principles.
This research prompted me to start an internal employee group at Intel to discuss sustainable product design, and the company’s stance on environmental issues generally.
This groundswell led to the consolidation of a Net Zero commitment from corporate leadership. It also led to new business relationships with customers. Technical teams partnered on sustainability initiatives such as Dell’s Concept Luna, which showed how the carbon footprint of a laptop could be lowered significantly.
Connections I developed with startups led to new designs with a focus on repair, reuse and longer life. The Framework computer is currently the leader in this exciting trend.
Since these early projects, I’ve been consulting and educating the tech industry on sustainability issues, from the energy footprint of new AI applications to the problem of electronic waste.
My 2023 workshop series, Electronics Ecologies, brought together industry practitioners, academics, engineers and designers to share perspectives on the full life cycle of digital devices and how best to mitigate their environmental harms.
Keeping digital devices in use for as long as possible is an important way to minimize the environmental impact of their production, which involves mining rare earth commodities, global transportation and energy costs.
For mobile phones and laptops, the majority of the carbon emissions associated with their production takes place before you even buy them. My research addresses this substantial challenge, which is to redirect high tech manufacturing’s linear trajectory of extraction-production-consumption-discard.
The eSummit on Sustainable Electronics held in Austin last month is an important venue to keep track of the industry supporting digital technology reuse. The event brings together OEMs (Original Equipment Manufacturers), technology hardware resellers, ITADs (IT Asset Disposition operators) nonprofits and sustainability advocates. I chaired a panel on emerging trends with Mark Newton (Head of Corporate Sustainability, Samsung North America), Walter Alcorn (VP Environmental Affairs and Industry Sustainability, Consumer Technology Association – pictured L-R), and Sean Magann (Sims Lifecycle Services).
If you’ve ever wondered what happens to your old laptop, mobile phone or headset when it’s donated or sent to IT for recycling, chances are it goes to one of the companies or organisations that attends this forum, or others like the Reverse Logistics Association.
Speakers included Tom Marieb, VP Product Integrity for Hardware Engineering at Apple, who addressed sustainability concerns about parts pairing and repairability for iPhones.
For years, Apple has faced scrutiny for preventing consumers from being able to easily repair their devices. While Apple has partially changed its position on repair in response to advocacy, the main sustainability focus for the company is having a supply chain running on renewable energy, as well as committing to 100% recycled rare earth elements in all new products from 2025.
iFixit organized multiple sessions with OEMs and in collaboration with Repair.org, the main advocacy group seeking “right to repair” options for consumers across the US. Lenovo, HP and Microsoft all presented recent improvements to repairability scoring in response to pressure from these groups and new Eco-Design requirements coming in to effect in Europe.
Reuse and repair are becoming critical design priorities given the carbon emissions involved in hardware production and distribution, which could be reduced and avoided with more efficient reuse of e-waste and idle, unused electronics. In addition, the reverse logistics industry is an incredibly rewarding business model to support: it enables more users to experience the benefits of technology access by paving the way for new adoption paths. The photo to the left – captured at the conference showroom floor – illustrates the many people who are touched by – and make a business from supporting – electronics reuse.
We’re hoping to use the insights from reuse and repair practitioners I’ve met in the US and Australia to pilot new initiatives at BDFI – for example, a donation drive for electronics that can fuel research and training opportunities with industry and nonprofit partners. Stay tuned to get involved in these plans as they take shape, or why not add a comment below about your memories of old electronics and how you’ve recycled or disposed of them?