Beyond Carbon Footprints: What Electronics Sustainability Really Means

The path to sustainable electronics isn't straightforward, but Trust International's ESG Manager Arjan Steenbergen is navigating it with remarkable dedication. Having spent his entire career at Trust since 1995, Steenbergen's journey from IT to sustainability exemplifies how environmental consciousness can evolve within corporations.

Electronics sustainability presents unique challenges - how do you make products more environmentally friendly when they're essentially "chemicals put together with electricity running through them doing something magical"? Trust approaches this complexity through comprehensive life cycle assessments, examining impacts from production to end-of-life. This methodical approach reveals that different products require different sustainability strategies: for mice, it might mean incorporating rechargeable batteries and recycled plastics; for keyboards, it could involve designing for repairability.

The conversation takes a fascinating turn when exploring the apparent contradiction between product longevity and carbon footprints. Counterintuitively, a longer-lasting electronic device might calculate a higher overall carbon footprint simply because it consumes energy for more years. This reveals how current sustainability metrics often lack critical context, prompting Steenbergen to advocate for more sophisticated communication approaches - perhaps expressing impact as carbon footprint per year rather than as a lifetime figure.

Looking ahead, the European Union's Eco-Design for Sustainable Products Regulation will fundamentally transform electronics design. Batteries will need to be removable, parts replaceable, and products more repairable overall. For Trust, this means rethinking product architecture from the ground up, eliminating practices like gluing components together that make disassembly difficult. While these changes present engineering challenges, they represent crucial steps toward true circularity.

The passion driving this transformation isn't just regulatory compliance - it's a genuine belief in building a more sustainable future. As Steenbergen puts it, having a level regulatory playing field helps, but seeing "so many people active in this space" provides the real energy to continue pushing forward. His story reminds us that behind corporate sustainability initiatives are individuals deeply committed to making meaningful environmental progress, one product design decision at a time.

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