<div><em>The decreasing life cycle of gadgets and increasing consumption patterns puts stress on the limited natural resources of this planet. It’s time the Govt and the Industry spell out the compliance standards, says <strong>Puneet Mehrotra</strong></em><br><br><span style="color:#ff0000;"><strong>Lifecycle of a Gadget</strong></span></div><div>As a kid I remember walking into my father’s bedroom every morning and listening to the grand old radio in that huge wooden console at 8.00 am every morning. That wooden console radio was a fixture in that room for almost 40 years or maybe more. I even managed connecting my walkman to its speakers. I don’t exactly remember where that radio is now but I guess it must have completed half a century before being dumped. The good old TV set lasted around 20 years and my walkman lasted a good 6-7 years. The last cell phone lasted maybe a few months or maybe a year or two.</div><div> </div><div> </div><div><strong>The Impact of Technology</strong></div><div>In a conversation with Sarah O’Brien, director Green Electronics Council said “While there has been a huge positive impact of technology in terms increasing efficiency and cutting down paper wastage there are huge environmental concerns and these concerns must be addressed by the industry now.” There is an urgency and the fact needs to told.</div><div> </div><div>EnoughProject.com puts quite bluntly “Your mobile phone, your jewelry, your computer, and your gaming system all contain minerals that fuel fighting in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo.” </div><div> </div><div> </div><div><strong>Stress on Natural Resources:</strong></div><div>The decreasing life cycle of gadgets and increasing consumption patterns puts stress on the limited natural resources of this planet. The assumption being natural resources are limited, whereas consumption is not. Cell phones, iPads, laptops use a lot of precious metals, minerals and more that are sometimes procured from war torn countries and some of this has been procured by allegedly dubious means too in pursuit to meet the demand. What that means is that that gadget in your hand may mean exploitation and blood of someone in Africa. </div><div> </div><div>According to EnoughProject.com in 2009 the then Secretary of State Hillary Clinton highlighted the link between armed conflict, sexual violence, and minerals when she visited eastern Congo in August 2009, arguing that the world needs to do more “to prevent the mineral wealth from the DRC ending up in the hands of those who fund the violence.</div><div> </div><div> </div><div><strong>Irresponsible Patterns in Consumption</strong></div><div>While industrial consumption of technology maybe somewhat need based but on the consumer side there is a huge proportion of consumption that is more attitude based more than need. Take for instance the lifecycle of gadgets. According to Sarah O’Brien “In developing world lifecycle of a laptop or a cell phone is 2 years or less.” The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), estimates the average person dumps almost 4.5 pounds of waste into landfills every single day. A huge proportion of that contains precious metals. </div><div> </div><div>The minute differences maybe not be understood by the consumer yet the attitude that the gadget has to be “upgraded” every year has a huge environmental cost to it. Companies like Samsung and LG maybe at an advantage due to the demand thus creates but there is a huge opportunity cost being lost due to irresponsible use of precious metals.</div><div> </div><div>Whether required or not a business can create need by simply playing around with emotions. While Flipkart may say it’s in the business of “fulfilling wishes” but is it just that simple? Does a business only have commercial costs or should it have “green” costs as well? More importantly can we really afford this consumption? What is the way out? Are the lives of people in developing and developed countries more valuable than those people in “raw material conflict countries”? </div><div> </div><div> </div><div> </div><div><span style="color:#ff0000;"><strong>The Way Forward</strong></span></div><div> </div><div><strong>Activism: EnoughProject.com </strong></div><div>The Enough Project works to end genocide and crimes against humanity, focused on areas where some of the world’s worst atrocities occur. Enough was conceived in 2006 by a small group of concerned policymakers and activists who wanted to transform their frustration about inaction into pragmatic solutions and hope. Co-founded by Africa experts Gayle Smith and John Prendergast, Enough launched in early 2007 as a project of the Center for American Progress. Enough is based in Washington, DC, and works with concerned citizens, advocates, and policy makers to prevent, mitigate, and resolve crises of genocide and crimes against humanity.</div><div> </div><div> </div><div><strong>Green Certification</strong></div><div>Organisations like GreenElectronicsCouncil.org are playing a huge role in greening businesses by inspiring and catalyzing environmental leadership throughout the lifecycle of electronic technologies</div><div> </div><div>On the recipient side take the case of Ricoh India which recently India recently received Silver ratings for a total of 32 of its imaging equipment products marketed in India, including MFPs and printers, as qualified by the Electronic Product Environmental Assessment Tool (EPEAT) registry. Ricoh is the first manufacturer to have its Imaging Equipment products meet the stringent environmental benchmarks in India as established by the EPEAT rating system.</div><div> </div><div><strong>Urban Mining</strong></div><div>There are billions of dollars worth of precious metal in landfills. According to Triplepundit.com CE device manufacturers use some 320 tons of gold and more than 7,500 tons of silver every year in churning out iPads, Galaxy Tabs, notebooks, PCs, smartphones and the growing profusion of CE devices being pumped into markets worldwide. That’s enough to add more than $21 billion a year – $16 billion in gold and $5 billion in silver – “to the rich fortunes in metals eventually available through ‘urban mining’ in developed and developing countries alike,” according to a Unu-Gels e-waste conference synopsis.</div><div> </div><div>In a recent experiment in Sweden over 440000 pounds of precious metals were recovered from a huge landfill of electronic gadget waste. The practical application of that experiment however is yet to be established.</div><div> </div><div> </div><div><strong>Industry Measures</strong></div><div>EICC Coalition has set up standards on social, environmental and ethical issues in the electronics industry supply chain. Founded in 2008 by members of the Electronic Industry Citizenship Coalition and the Global e-Sustainability Initiative, the Conflict-Free Sourcing Initiative has grown into one of the most utilized and respected resources for companies from a range of industries addressing conflict minerals issues in their supply chains.</div><div> </div><div><span style="color:#ff0000;"><strong>The Last Word</strong></span></div><div>There is urgency in environment and conflict free sourcing compliance. The last thing any consumer of a cell phone or gadget would want is blood on his hands of some poor African or that the precious metals used in his phone come from zones of exploitation of some African country or the demand of precious metals leading to gangs at war in pursuit of control of these metals in poverty countries. LGs, Samsungs and the Sonys of the world cannot ignore this. It’s time the Govt and the Industry spell out the compliance standards. The US only recently spelled that out. India being one of the largest consumers of cell phones and gadgets needs to spell that out urgently.</div><div> </div><div> </div><div><strong>The author, Puneet Mehrotra, is a columnist on business and technology <br>Write to him at puneet@tbe.in</strong></div><div> </div><div> </div><div> </div><div> </div><div> </div><div> </div><div> </div><div> </div>
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