CES 2024 arrived with announcements from the biggest tech companies around that showed off new devices and teased exciting technology. But another trend is the various ways sustainability has crept into keynotes and presentations that talk about the environmental impact of all those shiny, new gadgets on store shelves.
The big change for CES 2024 is a focus on what goes into your product. Unlike previous years when companies had pledges to source energy from green power or buy carbon offsets, which sustainability experts have criticized for not reducing emissions, they’re expanding their use of recycled materials in devices and displays.
As CES wound down, Google announced its new policy supporting the Right to Repair movement and the user’s right to fix their own devices. This includes making tools, parts and repair manuals available to device owners — including Pixel phone owners. Combined with Google’s commitment to supply the latest Pixel 8 series with seven years of software updates, it seems like more device manufacturers are acknowledging consumer desire to keep their devices around for longer, which means fewer old devices thrown away into landfills and contributing to climate woes.
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At the outset of 2024, the tech industry is becoming more aware of the importance of sustainability — either because it’s recognizing that it needs to account for all the ways producing new technologies contributes to climate change, or because the growing public awareness of industrial impact on climate change means they can’t ignore their own contribution.
“[Device] buyers are still asking about carbon emissions (upstream and downstream) but they also want to know about the materials that are being used, the recyclability of the product that they buy, etc.,” said Bjoern Stengel, Global Sustainability Research lead at the International Data Company. Getting the most use out of devices and reuse of their materials is becoming a major…
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