Greenpeace released the "2017 Greener Electronics Brand Rating Guide to Greener Electronics" simultaneously globally today (10/17), directly naming Samsung, Huawei, and Amazon as the least responsible for the environment. Although Taiwanese electronics brands Acer and Asus have previously promised to gradually Polyvinyl chloride (PVC) and brominated flame retardants (BFR) have been eliminated from products, but have not yet been completely removed. On the other hand, only Apple and Google have completely banned PVC and BFR in their entire product lines. Global electronics brands are becoming increasingly aware of environmental protection and are gradually adopting environmentally-first policies and practices from energy to raw material procurement. This also makes Taiwan, famous for its electronics OEM, urgently need to transform its industry to respond to global market development trends. Greenpeace recommends that Taiwan's electronics industry should make good use of R&D and production technology, use easy maintenance and durability as the design basis, and increase the proportion of recycled materials and renewable energy. In addition to realizing a circular economy, it can also create new situations under the challenge of climate change. Greenpeace Global IT Project Manager Li Zhian said: "Consumer electronic products have a short life cycle, which not only rapidly consumes the earth's limited resources, but also increases greenhouse gas emissions. The electronics industry still needs to work hard to improve product recycling programs and encourage users to actively recycle waste. For electronic products, the development of more efficient recycling technologies is indeed a step towards a circular economy." Greenpeace evaluated 17 world-renowned electronic brands. The evaluation items include (1) increasing the use of renewable energy and reducing greenhouse gas emissions; (2) resources. Recycling, reducing consumption of virgin materials, and (3) management and elimination of hazardous chemicals in products and supply chains. During the evaluation process, Greenpeace continued to communicate with various brands to promote the IT industry to improve the current situation and reduce carbon emissions and resource consumption in the supply chain to reduce environmental impact. Based on the comprehensive evaluation results, although most electronic brands have begun to use a small amount of recycled materials and promote the use of renewable energy in their supply chains, their progress is still far behind the speed of launching new products. At a time when the global electronics industry is undergoing transformation, electronic waste is an even more thorny issue. Since 2014, global electronic waste has surged from 48.9 million tons to 6,500 tons, an increase of 33%. The biggest reasons are planned elimination design and incomplete recycling system. In 2016, Greenpeace and the German Applied Ecological Research Institute Oeko Institut jointly studied the resource efficiency of the global smartphone and tablet manufacturing and recycling processes. They found that more than 1 billion smartphones and tablets consume more than 300,000 tons of resources, but Due to existing recycling technology and poor efficiency, the proportion of extraction and reuse is less than half of consumption. High-priced resources that are not recycled directly become electronic waste that pollutes the environment. It is worth noting that many technology brands adopt "planned obsolescence" product design to increase sales by increasing the frequency of product replacement by consumers. Although the brands make short-term profits, they also lead to the rapid accumulation of electronic waste. . Products from Apple, Samsung and Microsoft all make it difficult for consumers to remove parts and repair and upgrade. Samsung in particular launches new products in an astonishing number and speed. Li Zhian said: "Planned obsolescence design shortens the use cycle of mobile phones, encourages over-consumption, accelerates resource consumption, and is also the main reason for the doubling of electronic waste. The electronics industry should implement a circular economy, change the linear production model, and improve the recycling and regeneration of materials. Utilize. "; In addition, consumers are reminded that when choosing 3C products, they can think more about the sources of electricity and materials used in the manufacturing process, choose durable products, and refuse to overconsumption to avoid the consumption of earth resources. In April this year, Apple publicly announced that it would use 100% recycled raw materials in its production supply chain in the future, setting off another wave of green reforms in the global electronics industry. This policy will drive the technology industry to increase the proportion of product recycling and the utilization rate of recycled materials, thereby reducing the number of recycled materials. In addition to mineral mining, Apple has required suppliers to gradually use 100% renewable energy since 2015. These positive actions have allowed Apple to rank second in the ranking. Taiwan is a major OEM for Apple products, and it is bound to start actively increasing the procurement and actual use of renewable energy and recycled materials. Li Zhian said: "Taiwan's leading brands Acer and Asus should take more active actions in committing to the use of renewable energy. It is recommended that both Acer and Acer sign a renewable energy power purchase agreement (PPA) as soon as possible to enhance the brand's green competitiveness and assist Taiwan. The development of renewable energy and leading the industrial transformation!” The 17 brands in this evaluation had greenhouse gas emissions of more than 100 million tons in 2016, and the IT industry’s electricity consumption in 2012 exceeded the global electricity demand of 7%, which is estimated to be in It may break through 12% in 2017. While many technology companies have already switched to renewable energy starting with office operations, and some have expanded their use of renewable energy to data centers and sales operations, the scale of the switch to renewable energy still needs to expand. Especially since the 1990s, the production lines of electronic products have been transferred to Asia on a large scale. However, Asian countries still rely heavily on coal-fired power sources, which not only emits large amounts of greenhouse gases, but also causes serious air pollution. Greenpeace recommends that the IT industry can increase the proportion of renewable energy use, further reduce carbon emissions, and implement corporate sustainability commitments by setting up its own renewable energy installations or signing power purchase agreements with the renewable energy industry. The IT industry has changed the living habits and behaviors of modern people. Currently, more than 3 billion people in the world own smart phones. In order to stimulate the sales market, brands still choose product designs that consume resources, resulting in a business model of over-consumption that cannot be sustained by limited earth resources. Greenpeace continues to call on brands to use the principles of circular economy as the production strategy of electronic products to reduce resource consumption. It also drives energy transformation and encourages consumers to choose repairable and durable products to reduce the burden on the earth. Source: Greenpeace (201
