For now I’d like to get into some examples of LCAs with the help of Karsten Schischke (Fraunhofer Institute, Berlin). Thankfully, Bibi on the Fairphone team has been working with me to coordinate a research structure that I’ll discuss later. You can imagine for such complex things like a phone, we are talking about thousands of different components and mapping the whole system is extremely hard. That also means, even for simple products, the whole system behind the life cycle could easily be hundreds of different processes. That helps us understand our supply chain and how a change on one side can affect the other side and makes us sure that reduction of the environmental impact at one stage in the life cycle does not come at the price of an increase at another stage.įor example, we may focus on finding a supplier with a display for the Fairphone that is a bit more energy-efficient, but then we have to consider the potentially increased electricity need during its production compared to the screen we have now. The life-cycle viewpoint means that we are looking into the whole life of the product (from raw material extraction, through production and usage, up to recycling or disposal). The first LCAs were made around twenty years ago, and I’d like to be clear on what LCA encompasses. But the LCA is the most widely-used and recognized tool due to its reliable, scientifically sound and holistic approach. Traditionally, this is also done with different eco-labels, Design for Environment (DfE), ecological footprints, and so on.
It is able to set up limits, make comparisons, identify hot-spots, or just better understand the impacts on our surrounding natural world.
Basically, LCA is a tool that captures and measures the impact that a product has on the environment. Let me start with a quick introduction to LCA: Life-Cycle Assessment.
From my early childhood I always worried much about ecological problems thanks to my organic-greenist parents, and these problems don’t seem to be of less importance to me as of now, indeed. So I want to take the opportunity to give you an update about what’s going on in-house to get insights in the impacts on our lovely Earth.Īs a research assistant at Fairphone, I will be in charge for the coming months of investigating the contribution of our product to different environmental troubles. I suppose some (or most!) of you are concerned about the environmental issues related to the shiny, cool Fairphone-to-be, right? Some of you have already showed specific interest in our carbon, water, or ecological footprint.
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