Life cycle assessment is a cradle-to-grave or cradle-to-cradle analysis technique. It aims asses environmental impacts associated with all the stages of a product’s life. This includes all from raw material extraction through materials processing, manufacture, distribution, and use.
Researchers at Fraunhofer IZM analyze the entire life cycle of electronic products and product groups. They do this on the basis of standardized benchmarks and ISO norms and develop optimization proposals.
Little to no recycled plastics are used in the making of high-end electronic devices or electrical appliances (EEE), such as computers, refrigerators, and smartphones. At the same time, these products are among the fastest growing waste categories. How can the…
RealIZM-Blog-Series “Integrative Circular Economy” – Part 2″ Most high-end smartphones have one thing in common – they all look very similar. Take any device from a leading manufacturer, and you will see a powerful camera, a large display, and generally…
RealIZM-Blog-Series “Integrative Circular Economy” – Part 1 The average working life of a smartphone among the over-16s in Germany lasts only around 7 to 12 months. Users opt for newer models as a result of the fast innovation cycles, driven…
At the beginning of March, the ministry invited the project partners to the online conference “Green ICT 2023 – Sustainable Information and Communication Technologies”. In the run-up to this conference, RealIZM spoke with Dr. phil. Lutz Stobbe, head of the…
Mobility matters for people and their devices, but increasingly, so does sustainability. But smartphones, tablets, and the like generate considerable carbon emissions when they are produced and when they are used. In addition, valuable raw materials are used to make…
Communication networks like 5G need the many modules and components that make them up to be robust and long-lasting, whatever the environmental conditions or other circumstances may be. Researchers at Fraunhofer IZM have now developed a testing method which allows…
When developing and bringing new products to market, knowing its lifetime can be essential. Manufacturers want their products to work for a specific period of time or number of uses, but things break and products fail. To know when and…
Although life cycle assessments do not save the environment, it can make industry think, as the example of life cycle assessments for electronics shows. Every electronic product, useful as it may be, comes with a heavy ecological backpack: From the…
