Environmental

Manufacturing, Use, and Disposal of IT Systems

Digital devices have an environmental footprint at every stage of their life.

Manufacturing consumes significant energy and relies on rare earth materials — metals like cobalt and lithium that are mined in limited quantities, often causing habitat destruction. Building a single smartphone, for example, requires dozens of different minerals.

The manufacturing process also generates industrial pollution as a by-product of production. When devices are made at scale, this pollution accumulates significantly across the industry.

Use draws on electricity continuously. Data centres running cloud services consume enormous amounts of power around the clock, contributing to carbon emissions — especially where electricity comes from fossil fuels.

Even individual devices left on standby across an entire organisation add up to a surprisingly large energy footprint over the course of a year.

Disposal creates e-waste. Devices thrown into landfill leak toxic chemicals into soil and water. Responsible disposal involves recycling schemes or returning devices to manufacturers, but many organisations still do not have formal processes for this.

When devices aren't properly recycled, valuable materials such as gold and copper are lost permanently rather than recovered for reuse.