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Sustainability and Ethics Report Template

1. Introduction

In this section you should introduce the topic of your report, the product, and the material or component that you are focussing on.

· Describe the overall focus of your report in general terms at the top.  For example, your report investigates the sustainability of a material/component used in a product made by the company that you work for.

· Give background context of the material you are focussing on.  What is its role in your product?  Can other materials be used in its place?  Is it a rare material? Is it used widely in other electronic products?

· Describe your theoretical approach to understanding and organising your research.  (We have asked you to take a life cycle approach to your analysis).

· Describe the structure and aims of your report (1-2 sentences)

2. Life Cycle Analysis

2.1 Extraction

In this section, you should describe where and how the material is extracted and processed for use and the sustainability problems that it raises.  Describe how the material is extracted and processed for use in your product

· Is the material in short supply?  Will stocks be likely to run out in years to come?

· Does the extraction cause any environmental issues (For example: pollution, loss of biodiversity, toxic waste products, high energy or water use)

2.11 Ethical Problems of Extraction

If you find that there are ethical issues at this stage of the life cycle then you should raise them in this section.

· Does the extraction cause any ethical issues?  (unsafe working environments, poverty, poor pay, etc).  NB: You only need to address ethical issues at one point of the life cycle.

2.2 Manufacture of xxx Product

In this section, you should describe whether the processing and manufacture of the material you have chosen causes any sustainability problems at the stage of product manufacture?  The section should be one-two paragraphs long depending on what you find.  You should focus on the following questions:

· Does the manufacture and preparation of the material or product require large amounts of water or energy?

· Are there any unsustainable processes involved in manufacture in terms of health and safety harmful by-products, or other issues?

2.21 Ethical Problems of Manufacture

If you find that there are ethical issues at this stage of the life cycle then you should raise them in this section.  If you have already discussed ethical issues at an earlier stage, you do not need to include this section again.

· Are there any ethical issues that you find associated with manufacture (release of toxic products, heated water, poor pay, unsafe working conditions)?

2.3 Use of xxx Product

In this section, you will need to focus on the sustainability of the whole product, since this stage of the life cycle involves the way in which the user interacts with the product and users only tend to interact with whole products.  You should focus on the following questions:

· Does the product require a lot of energy or water when it is turned on?

· Does the product waste any energy or water when it is running?

· Could the product cause any harm to users?

2.31 Ethical Problems of Use

If you find that there are ethical issues at this stage of the life cycle then you should raise them in this section.  If you have already discussed ethical issues at an earlier stage, you do not need to include this section again.

· Are there any ethical issues that arise from the use of this product (eg: safety, psychological effects, risks to physical health with overuse)

2.4 End of Life of xxx Product

Here you should describe how the product is generally disposed of and how the material that you have chosen to focus on is recovered and re-used or is it consigned to landfill waste? Questions to focus on are:

· What generally happens to the whole product at the end of life (is it shipped to waste dumps around the world? Is it recycled? Etc)

· Is the material that you have focused on easy to recover from the product?  If so, how much can be recovered?

· Is the material or other parts of your product toxic to the environment (water pollution, air pollution, biodiversity loss) when extracted from the sealed product?

2.41 Ethical Problems of Use

If you find that there are ethical issues at this stage of the life cycle then you should raise them in this section.  If you have already discussed ethical issues at an earlier stage, you do not need to include this section again.

· Are there any ethical issues that arise from the disposal of this product (eg: waste is shipped from more to less developed countries, waste is toxic if seals are broken or it is burned, waste leaches toxin into environment over time etc)

3. Discussion and Conclusion

In this section, you will need to summarise the main sustainability and ethical problems that you have identified in the life cycle and suggest what the next steps should be to making the material/product more sustainable.   The next steps may not make the product/material fully sustainable, but it may help to improve the sustainability profile in the future.  Questions to focus on are:

· What are major problems for sustainability of your product/material?  Which life cycle stages cause most problem?

· What are the major ethical issues with your product/material?

· Suggest next steps towards making your product more ethical and sustainable for the future.

4. References

This is where you should list your references.  Please use the numbering system that was discussed in your Challenge 2 report.  It is the IEEE style system and is described here: https://ieeeauthorcenter.ieee.org/wp-content/uploads/IEEE-Reference-Guide.pdf

Some research terms that may be useful for your research are: environmental impact indium, life cycle assessment indium,

Here are a few references to help you get your research started:

1. Goodling M (2021) “The Environmental Impact of Chip Making Needs Closer Scrutiny” Techmonitor https://techmonitor.ai/leadership/sustainability/chip-making-and-sustainability-intel-tsmc Last accessed 03.12.2021

2. Robertson J (2019) “Why smartphones are no longer driving the search for ‘blue gold’.” BBC https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-49265455 Last accessed 03.12.2021

3. Martin B (2020) “The Hidden Environmental Toll of Smartphones” Openmind https://www.bbvaopenmind.com/en/science/environment/the-hidden-environmental-toll-of-smartphones/ Last accessed 03.12.2021

4. Sinn H-W (2019) “Are Electric Vehicles Really So Climate Friendly?” The Guardian https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/nov/25/are-electric-vehicles-really-so-climate-friendly Last accessed 03.12.2021

5. UK Parliament Parliamentary Office for Science and Technology (2021) “Regulating Product Sustainability”  POSTNOTE 646 https://researchbriefings.files.parliament.uk/documents/POST-PN-0646/POST-PN-0646.pdf

6. Moore D (2021) Gen Z stockpiling electricals with six old devices at home, research finds https://www.circularonline.co.uk/news/gen-z-stockpiling-electricals-with-six-old-devices-at-home-research-finds/ Last Accessed 03.12.2021

7. Pure Earth (2021) https://www.pureearth.org Last Accessed 03.12.2021 (Good information on toxicity and heavy metals).

8. American Chemistry Association (2021) Green Chemistry https://www.acs.org/content/acs/en/greenchemistry.html Last Accessed 03.12.2021

9. Low-Tech Magazine (2021) “The Monster Footprint of Digital Technology” https://www.lowtechmagazine.com/2009/06/embodied-energy-of-digital-technology.html Last Accessed 03.12.2021

10. Global Waste E-monitor (2021) https://ewastemonitor.info/gem-2020/ Last Accessed 03.12.2021