Kozminski Techblog

Fairphone, a Dutch electronics company, has the ambition to revolutionize the digital sector. According to the company, the electronics industry participates in the destruction of the environment, the production of waste and the perpetuation of social injustices.

Indeed, smartphones are one of the most resource intensive products on the planet. In Europe their climate impact amounts to 14.2 million tonnes of CO2.They also include toxic materials including lead, mercury, arsenic, cadmium, chlorine and bromine.

it takes about fifty different metals to design a smartphone. That’s double what was needed for past generation phones. Yet, paradoxically, it is becoming increasingly difficult to exploit these resources, between sites held by armed groups and mines using child labor or paying miners poorly. Gold is one of these problematic minerals. This is why Fairphone has decided to source its products from an artisanal mine in Peru that has received the Fairtrade label from Max Havelaar. This mine respects a set of specifications including 250 requirements, guaranteeing fairer benefits for the workers, taking into account the environmental context, etc.

It also has a policy of reusing devices. For example, customers can return used devices to the company. These could then have a second life in less developed regions of the world. The human rights and well-being of employees are also at the heart of the company’s strategy.

The brand has 3 certifications: B corp, Fair Trade and Ecovadis which makes it the only smartphone brand to hold these certifications.

By making a more sustainable smartphone, Fairphone demonstrates the infinite possibilities of creating a fairer future for everyone. Fairphone engenders a better understanding of products by the individuals who own them, starting the conversation about what fairness really means.

https://www.fairphone.com/fr/https://medium.com/climate-conscious/10-green-technologies-that-will-change-the-world-9f7a709c1a15

https://medium.com/climate-conscious/10-green-technologies-that-will-change-the-world-9f7a709c1a15

Alibaba, the world’s largest online B2B commerce platform has committed to achieving carbon neutrality by 2030 in its owned operations. With this in mind, Alibaba Group has committed to joining the Science-Based Targets initiative to help limit global temperature rise to 1.5°C. The Science Based Targets initiative, also known as the SBT or SBTi initiative, is a partnership between CDP, the United Nations Global Compact, the World Resources Institute (WRI) and the World Wildlife Fund (WWF). It aims to drive “ambitious climate action” by offering companies the opportunity to turn their transition to a low-carbon economy into a competitive advantage.
Increasing the use of clean energy and improving energy efficiency is one of its objectives. Additional initiatives include the implementation of green management plans for suppliers, with incentive mechanisms for widespread use. The intention to optimize our technical expertise and mobilize all teams is part of the action plan.
Promoting emission-reducing behaviors through technological innovations and new business models is also a key part of the Chinese giant’s sustainability strategy.

The company has also launched the “1.5 Gigatons for 1.5 °C” project, in which we will engage the various platforms to achieve a 1.5 billion ton reduction in carbon emissions through Goal 3+ by 2035.

Technology at the heart of the strategy

A new wave of technology and business model innovation is planned within Alibaba to foster teams and provide innovative solutions to meet society’s urgent climate needs. A digital ecosystem is being built to bring together all stakeholders to collaborate on this project. The promotion of greener products and behaviors among consumers and stakeholders will be implemented. These types of behavioral changes will influence decision-making in all aspects of the value chain, and these efforts will serve to build a strong science and technology foundation for the transition.

Sources :

https://www.asiaone.com/business/alibaba-group-joins-low-carbon-patent-pledge-accelerate-adoption-green-technology

https://www.theregister.com/2022/04/22/alibaba_patents/

Can mobile applications be used for the ecological transition? The WAG (We Act For Good) application, launched at the beginning of November by the international environmental protection NGO WWF, proposes to act at one’s level. The principle: take up challenges to transform your daily actions into eco-responsible behavior. It’s not just about sorting your waste or turning off the light when you leave a room, but also, for example, changing the way you do your Christmas shopping. Here is how the application works.

Where did the idea come from?
“Melting glaciers, rising waters, heat peaks sometimes accompanied by pollution peaks… Today, the majority of French people are aware of climate change, explains Pascal Canfin, WWF’s director general, to franceinfo. To alert, it is already made. Today, the number one request is “Help us to change.

The NGO then thought about an application, WAG, which allows everyone to take action, in partnership with Ademe (the Agency for Environmental Management), La Poste and Maif.

What is the objective?
WWF intends to make this application “a weapon of massive transition”. “The idea is to add up the services rendered individually and the strength of the collective,” says Pascal Canfin. In mid-January, two months after its launch, the application had been downloaded 220,000 times. WWF has set a medium-term goal of one million downloads.

“We bring together the community of those who are in action and who can serve as ambassadors, and those who intend to act but are unable to do so,” explains Pascal Canfin.

How does it work?

• Choose your category. The application, available for free on the App Store and on Google Play, offers 500 challenges classified in five categories. “Eat well”, where you learn for example how to take inventory in your fridge, “Towards zero waste”, which focuses on sorting, “Getting around”, “Optimizing energy” and “Do it yourself” which offers among other things recipes to make your own cosmetics.
• Identify your eco-responsible actions. Before embarking on a new challenge, you can already look at the small things you do on a daily basis and get your first points. Thus, while browsing the “zero waste” category, I choose the sub-category “Give rather than throw away”. And in the proposed challenges, I notice that I can already check the box “Find a collection point near my home (clothes, books, toys…)”, because I regularly drop off clothes at a relay point near my home. Result: 110 points collected. I can now tackle a new challenge.
• Launching a challenge. In the “Do it yourself” category this time, then the “cosmetics” sub-category, I can select “Make your first beauty product”. To take action, I choose the tutorial “the recipe for deodorant in a jar” where a list of ingredients is indicated. The making is simple, except for some ingredients that have to be bought in an organic store, and rather fast because it only takes five minutes to obtain a satisfactory deodorant.
• Take part in the daily quiz. Every day, at 12:45, the application offers a quiz in the form of a true/false. Example: “The signs ‘Elected product of the year’ or ‘Flavors of the year’ are quality labels”. After answering, WAG proposes a series of actions to go further on the subject, such as downloading the guide published by WWF to learn how to choose your fish or downloading the Yuka application, which allows you to scan the products bought in supermarkets.
• Sharing good tips. The WAG application is also collaborative. I can suggest the address of an organic restaurant or a place where consumers and producers can buy directly from each other. The address is then checked by “super users”, volunteers at WWF, and helps to fill the interactive map, accessible without going through the challenges, which currently lists 36,000 addresses throughout France.

Sources : https://weactforgood.com/app-telecharger/

Nowadays, the impact of new technologies on the environment is a real issue. The permanent use of technologies contributes to what is called digital pollution. This growing phenomenon is not likely to go away. We ask ourselves how to mitigate this problem. 

And if reversing the trend would be the solution? Can digital technology be at the service of the environment? 

68 per cent of the environment-related Sustainable Development Goal indicators, there is not enough data to assess progress. The digital initiatives leverage technology to halt the decline of the planet and accelerate sustainable finance, products, services, and lifestyles, according to the UNEP studies. 

To address this problem, the Swiss technology company IQAir and UNEP partnered to create the GEMS Air Strategic Plan. This platform collected data from 50 million users in 5,000 cities to fight air pollution. In the future, the program aims to extend this capability directly into cell phone health apps.

Another association demonstrating the power of technology to fight pollution is the Freshwater Ecosystem Explorer. 

It provides a detailed overview of the state of lakes and rivers in every country on the planet.

“This data is presented in a policy-friendly way, so citizens and governments can easily assess what is really happening to the world’s freshwater resources,” says Stuart Crane, a freshwater expert at UNEP. “This helps countries track their progress toward achieving Target 6.6 of the Sustainable Development Goals.”

Data about the physical environments in which we meet, work, and conduct our daily activities therefore raises serious privacy and security concerns. This is especially true when combined with health data. We need to better understand how to set limits on data collection. For example, we need to determine whether certain types or sources of data should be prohibited. We also need to define limits on how citizens, communities, and businesses can use this data.   

However, this improvement in data collection poses considerable privacy and ethical challenges in making the most of the data. The integration and governance of its data poses a considerable challenge. 

“Data about the physical environments in which we meet, work, and conduct our daily business therefore raises serious privacy and security concerns. This is especially true when combined with health data. “explains Anders Quitzau Research & Innovation Executive, IBM Research – IBM Watson

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