Once you learn how our technology is made you’ll hopefully never be lusting after a new device! Unfortunately in our modern world nearly all of us need a computer and phone to do our work and live life. Top tip – make your devices last as long as you can. It’s serving its purpose – we don’t need new ones constantly.
But once you’ve done that, if you’re looking for a new phone look to a brand like Fairphone. They’re Amsterdam based and they aim to source as many materials as possible in both human and environmentally kind ways.
Fairphone design for longevity, easy repair, and modular upgrades. You can literally swap out better components based on your needs or issues with them – it’s pretty cool. Their goal is to make your phone’s hardware last as long as possible, and to provide the support to keep its software up to date. The longer you can keep your phone, the smaller its environmental footprint.
It’s not perfect (no mining for resources is) but they’re conscious in trying to do better and they are moving closer to a circular economy by encouraging the reuse and repair of phones, researching electronics recycling options and reducing electronic waste worldwide
They’re also innovating ways to improve satisfaction for workers in the industry by listening to workers & suppliers and creating better working conditions with employee representation, income and growth opportunities.
This industry has a long way to go so we’d also love if you advocated for right-to-repair laws too. Europe is slowly heading that way with electrical appliance, and hopefully this kind of tech make it on the list too. It’s also important we start making noise about ease of switching. It should be easy to switch providers when they launch a better & more sustainable option rather than locking us in to their systems for life. We need better laws and regulations in this space and unfortunately tech moves way faster than most policy and politicians.
Any other options out there we should know?
