Raymond Kent, DLR Group Principal and Director of the Innovative Technology Design Group
Raymond Kent, DLR Group Principal and Director of the Innovative Technology Design Group
Have you ever stopped to think about the objects around you? What things have you bought or acquired that are either part of your daily life or sitting on a shelf gathering dust? In particular, have you ever wondered what happened to all the electronic devices and machines we interact with on a personal and professional level, and what happens to them long after we’ve moved on to the next device? Take a laptop as an example. What do you want to know about that laptop? What can you learn about yourself, your culture, or globalization from a single device? How do the social, technological, professional and personal lives of the laptop intersect with the lives of those involved in the various stages of its production, distribution, consumption and ultimate destruction? I invite you to consider the following questions:
● What does a notebook computer consist of? Where do the raw materials for the parts come from?
● Who extracts the raw materials from the ground to make the components? What do you imagine their lives to be like?
● Who processes these materials into products that can be used to make components? What should their lives be like?
● What about those who make components or assemble laptops into final products? Are their lives any different from others?
● What impact will these incidents have on the community? Do these people use laptops? How much money do they make? How much did the process they participated in change their lives? Does it affect people of different ages, genders or classes in the community differently?
● How did this material cross the town, city or border to get to your laptop? What is the transaction process for buying or selling these materials? How are they transported?
● What are the impacts on the communities consuming these items? Are the raw materials any different compared to the final product? What are the health impacts on workers or the community? What are their salaries and what are their working conditions? How does this relate to what you pay for your laptop?
● What is the environmental impact of each step in the process?
● What are the actual social costs of producing laptops in terms of labor, water, power systems, sewage treatment, pollution, medical care, waste disposal, transportation roads, etc.? Who pays for this?
● What impact does a single laptop have on the environment? How about a few thousand? What is required to extract, process, transport, package, consume and dispose of it? What impact does each stage have on the environment?
● Where does a laptop end up – in a closet, in a landfill, recycled, reused, or in the ocean when it’s no longer useful?
● Who is responsible for managing laptop recycling? Who is doing this work and under what conditions?
● What impact does global geopolitical instability have on this process?
● How does climate change affect this process?
There are many other questions you can explore about laptops or other technology you use every day. By thinking about these things analytically, we can make better choices about what technology we choose and how we use it throughout its life cycle.
The e-waste problem is estimated to be worth $62 billion, and there are growing opportunities to recover these materials and recycle them into new products. 
In 2015, the United Nations held a meeting of its member states and formulated the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda adopted by all member states. All parties agreed to work together to raise awareness of sustainable development and ultimately formulated the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). These seventeen goals comprehensively focus on how we interact with the earth, the products we create and how we manage our resources.
Aligned with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals is how to tackle the fastest-growing global problem: e-waste. It is estimated that more than 50 million tons of e-waste are generated each year, and this is expected to increase by 40% by 2030. Many people think of this as an end-of-life issue, but the reality is that it permeates the entire manufacturing process chain, including the extraction of raw materials from the earth. The above scenario of thinking about laptops has both good and bad consequences for the world. For example, the extraction of raw materials degrades the environment, increases pollution, and creates economic challenges as resources are depleted and mining operations are moved to the next location. This has financial and social impacts on jobs and communities, often leading to challenging economic problems. This further affects developing countries as well, increasing geopolitical instability, poor and unregulated working conditions, and environmental pollution affecting local, regional and other areas.
The availability of manufacturing technology raw materials is limited, something many people don’t take into account because they only have that laptop in front of them. We saw examples of this during the recent wafer shortage and cessation of lithium mining in Eastern Europe, reducing supply to the battery industry and impacting multiple industries including technology. Additionally, the e-waste problem is worth an estimated $62 billion, and there are growing opportunities to recover these materials and recycle them into new products. Current informal management practices are causing health and environmental problems at an alarming rate. By thoughtfully considering how these products are produced and where they end up, we as an industry can better manage the impact on people, profits and the planet.
The tech industry has recognized that there are problems with supply chains and is working to manage them. However, consumer demand drives many decisions. Few people are willing to take on the issues of the end of life. Organizations such as Sustainability in AV (https://saveav.org) are working hard to educate their industry across the global network and provide end users with resources on what can be done and what to consider. In the meantime, take some time to stop and think about what’s going on around you. You might be surprised at how much happens during the life of this product.
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Raymond Kent is an award-winning, internationally recognized technology consultant in the construction and engineering sectors who regularly works with top clients across multiple industries, advising them on a number of topics including artificial intelligence, IoT, sustainability, augmentation and Virtual reality, and more.
