Tue Apr 19 07:25:00 EDT 2011

Five environmental impacts of electronic communications

NEW BRUNSWICK, CANADA, April 19, 2011 (RISI) - Below is a brief look at some key
environmental impacts over the life cycle of computers and their various accessories,
with the objective of introducing some of the environmental challenges that the ICT
industry faces, especially given the perception that replacing paper and print with digital
communication is "better" for the environment (1). The following information is based on
a brochure produced by NewPage (2) supplemented by other references.

Overview of the life cycle

1. Raw material extraction

Computers contain several non-renewable natural resources extracted from the earth
and processed, often requiring a significant amount of resources and energy. These
include sand (to make glass for screens), oil (used for plastics), and several metals
used in wiring and circuitry. The type of metals depend on the age of the components
and can include lead, gold, iron, aluminum, zinc, nickel, tin, magnesium, silver,
mercury, arsenic, cadmium, chromium and others. Some of these are becoming
increasingly scarce and sometimes their supply chain leads to operations with
questionable social and environmental issues. For example, coltan is a rare metal that
contains tantalum, a key component of electronic circuitry in computers, smart phones
and e-readers. The global tantalum capacitor market is worth about $2 billion annually.
Based on an article by the Globe and Mail (3), a significant amount of coltan is mined in
the Democratic Republic of Congo and helping finance a civil war.

2. Material manufacturing

After extraction and processing, raw materials are then used in the production of other
raw materials for the computer's components. A publication by the United Nations
University (4) has estimated that the manufacture of a computer and monitor weighing
53 lbs (24 kg) requires 10 times the amount of fossil fuels (over 530 lbs or 240 kg), 50
lbs (23 kg) of chemicals and 3300 lbs (1497 kg) of water. For an automobile or
refrigerator, for example, the weight of fossil fuels used for production is roughly equal
to their weights.
3. Computer and accessory manufacturing, packaging and transport

Compnent materials are then made into parts such as hard drives, screens and plastic
housings. More often than not, these parts are shipped elsewhere for assembly into the
finished computer. The computer or accessories are then packaged, usually in plastics
and cardboard for protection during transit.

Packaged computers and their accessories are shipped all over the world, many
travelling large distances from where they were manufactured. This influences the
carbon footprint of the product, with truck transport contributing the most and rail or ship
the least (per kg or lb of product).

4. Use

The volume of data being generated, transmitted and stored as a result of Internet use
has exploded, and Web server farms or data centers have grown with it. Each facility
draws a significant amount of power to run and cool the thousands of computers it
takes to keep up with 24-hour-a-day fast-growing demand. It is estimated that the
production and running of the ICT sector equates to 2% of global GHG emissions,
similar to the airline industry, and this is expected to double by 2020 (5). As an
example, every year 62 trillion spam emails are sent, contributing greenhouse gases
equivalent to two billion gallons of gasoline, or enough to drive a car around the globe
1.6 million times (6).

Picture: iStockphoto

5. End of Life

Based on the U.S. EPA, the U.S. is discarding older electronic products faster than
ever due to the short life-span of electronics (7,8). In 2005, 26 to 37 million computers
became obsolete. In 2007 about 1.5 to 1.8 million tons were primarily disposed in
landfills and only 18% of e-waste was recycled. A total of 61% were exported for
remanufacture or refurbishment.

Some of the constituents, such as lead, nickel, cadmium, and mercury, could pose risks
to human health or the environment if mismanaged at their end-of-life. The U.S. EPA
strongly supports keeping used electronics out of landfills to recover materials and
reduce the environmental impacts and energy demands from mining and manufacturing
(8). For example:
• Recycling 1 million laptops saves the same amount of electricity used by 3,657 US
homes in a year.
• One metric ton of circuit boards can contain 40 to 800 times the concentrations of
gold ore mined in the US and 30-40 times the concentration of copper ore mined in
the US.

One concern is that large amounts of e-waste are sent to China, India and Kenya
where workers may be unprotected and exposed to hazardous materials like mercury
and lead in the process of burning electronics in search of copper and aluminum to
resell. Greenpeace USA, the Basel Action Network (BAN) and The Silicon Valley
Toxics Coalition currently lead campaigns focused on e-waste issues (9,10,11).

Opportunities

Buying from a company that is making efforts to be sustainable is a good start. For
example, the electronic tools used to produce this blog were made by Acer, NEC and
Hewlett-Packard. All three companies have thorough sustainability programs outlined
on their web sites, showing engagement with the key environmental and social issues
(12,13,14). Anyone interested in "green" electronics should also be aware of the
EPEAT Registry for Green Electronics (15). In addition, consider turning off your
computer at night and weekends, donating old computers and recycling your
electronics.
All manufacturing sectors have challenging environmental issues and are working to
improve the situation. Paper, print and e-media will co-exist for many years to come.
They all have either negative or positive environmental, social and economic impacts
that can be continuously improved. Given the fact that forest products have such
unique environmental features (renewable, recyclable, carbon capture and storage,
supporting sustainable forest management), perhaps there are unique partnership
opportunities with the ICT sector, especially in the area of sustainable product design.
Server farms could easily be powered by renewable biomass from sustainably
managed forests. With emerging research on nano-cellulose, wood-plastic composites,
and bio-diesel, perhaps the forest products from my woodlot will also one day be
valued, not only for pulp and timber, but for biochemicals extracted from woody
biomass to make renewable plastic and bio-diesel fuel used in computer
manufacturing.

References

• 1. http://www.payitgreen.org/
• 2. http://edliveshere.com/content/balance/25/introduction/
• 3. http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/technology/smartphones-blood-stains-at-
our-fingertips/article1825207/ -
• 4. http://www.it-environment.org/compenv.html
• 5. Arnfalk, P. 2010. Analyzing the ICT - Paper Interplay and its Environmental
Implications.
• 6. http://www.mcafee.com/us/resources/reports/rp-carbonfootprint2009.pdf
• 7. http://www.epa.gov/wastes/conserve/materials/ecycling/docs/fact7-08.pdf
• 8. http://www.epa.gov/wastes/conserve/materials/ecycling/faq.htm#general
• 9. http://www.greenpeace.org/usa/en/campaigns/toxics/hi-tech-highly-toxic/
• 10. http://www.ban.org/
• 11. http://svtc.org/our-work
• 12. http://www.acer-group.com/public/Sustainability/sustainability01.htm
• 13. http://www.hp.com/hpinfo/globalcitizenship/
• 14. http://www.nec.co.jp/csr/en/
• 15. http://www.epeat.net/default.aspx

All RISI publications and websites, including risiinfo.com are copyrighted. Redistributing content or sharing user names are prohibited by law in
virtually every country around the world and may subject you to fines.More detail on terms of use.

© 2010 RISI All rights reserved