Introduction to Fairphone’s LCA project

Working document

Prepared by: Artur Szilágyi, research assistant, Fairphone

August 2013

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1. General information

The aim of this document is to provide an overview of Fairphone’s proposed activities related tothe planned Life-­Cycle Assessment (LCA). This includes:

the expected timeline of activities and milestones, the structure of working group with internal and external participants, types of deliverables, purpose of activities and possible future steps.

This document will be partly integrated to the Goal definition part of the final LCA report.

2. Introduction to Fairphone company profile

Fairphone is a social enterprise. Our mission is to make a smartphone and create a movement to build a fair economy. We open up the system to understand what shapes our economy – starting with smartphones. We’re looking at every mineral, component, person and process to reveal the real impact of electronics production, and taking action to make improvements. Some changes will happen quickly, while others may take years. But being honest and sharing best practices gives us more power to affect change.

We have defined five action areas in order to generate a positive impact in the supply chain and life cycle of Fairphone and the electronic industry at large:1) Precious Materials: responsible and transparent sourcing of minerals and metals.2) Made with Care: workers’ empowerment and improved working conditions.3) Smart Design: open, responsible design.4) Clear Deals: fair pricing and financial transparency.5) Lasting Value: address the full life span, including use, re-­use and recycling.

However, Fairphone has no “patent” on Fair, and fair is dynamic and a changing construct so the work is never done. Fairphone therefore also wants to function as a platform in which partners try out new and fairer ways of doing business, and improve the relation between people and products. Fairphone is also a platform to create awareness and push positive changes in the industry. With Fairphone, we want to proof that a fairer device is possible.

Fairphone 1 key dates: August 16th: first testing prototypes available Ramp up production ~end September Start of mass production: October Fall 2013: delivery first device to customers

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Fall 2014: Launch second version

First Fairphone retail price: €325;; 12.000 of 20.000 pre-­ordered in so far (in 8 weeks)

Fairphone 1 technical specs: Dragontrail glass Mediatek 6589 chipset: Quad core CPU 16 GB internal memory qHD display: 4.3 inches of touch-­screen Dual front/rear camera: 8 mp + 1.3 mp Android OS (4.2 Jelly Bean): Special interface developed by Kwame Corporation

Fairphone special features: Conflict-­free Tin from DR Congo (Program CFTI) Conflict-­free Tantalum from DR Congo (Program Solutions for Hope) Worker welfare fund and social assessment at A’Hong (manufacturing partner) by TAOS

Network. Reducing e-­waste in the developing world together with Closing the Loop. Dual SIM: Dual SIM increases the phone’s usefulness during the second phase of its life

in developing countries and decreases the amount of phone in the first phase(private/business).

Removable batteries: Extend the phone’s lifespan, easier to recycle, easier to replace byuser.

Root access: Easier for developers to play around with the software. Repair your own device: Orderable spare parts for factory prices including

manuals.

(see also www.fairphone.com)

3. Short introduction to LCA

IntroductionTo set up limitations, make comparisons, identify hot-­spots, and better understand the impacts

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on our surrounding natural world, somehow we need to capture and measure those impacts.There exist a number of tools and methods used -­ including different eco-­labels, Design forEnvironment (DfE), ecological footprint etc.The most widely used and recognized tool is Life-­cycle Assessment (LCA) due to its reliable,scientifically sound and holistic approach.

HistoryThe first LCAs were made around twenty years ago, and some of the first studies generated hotdebates among the experts. For example the infamous one which claimed McDonalds moreenvironmental friendly than the traditional restaurants but later its methods came out to be faulty.To avoid such cases, the scientific community -­ backed by the big-­name SETAC (Society ofEnvironmental Toxicology and Chemistry) and ISO (International Standardisation Organisation) -­started to organize workshops and meetings to bring consensus about the development of thescience behind the LCA and to harmonize the different methods. The result was the first versionof LCA standards (ISO14040 and 14044) in 1997.

Life-­cycle viewpointThe life-­cycle viewpoint means that we are looking into the whole life of the product (fromraw material extraction, through production and usage, up to recycling or disposal). That helpsus understand our supply chain and how a change on one side can affect the other side andmakes us sure that reduction of the environmental impact at one stage in the life cycle does notcome at the price of an increase at another stage.For example, we one can focus on finding a supplier with a display for the Fairphone that is a bitmore energy-­efficient, but then the potentially increased electricity usage during its productionneeds to be considered.

Functional viewpointUsually LCA looks at products from a functional viewpoint and considers all things that areneeded to provide a given function. For example the function of providing text on a sheet ofpaper for reading needs wires, electricity and a printer with ink and paper in it. However LCAgoes deeper to the production chain from extracting the fossil fuels for electricity generation, tothe use of wood and water for paper mills etc.That means, even for simple products, the whole system behind the lifecycle could easily behundreds of different processes. For such complex things like a phone, we are talking aboutthousands of different components and mapping the whole system is extremely hard.

Social LCA (sLCA)Social LCA is still under development as a different approach to life cycle thinking intended toassess social implications or potential impacts. Social and socio-­economic life cycleassessments add extra dimensions of impact analysis, valuable information for those who seekto produce or purchase responsibly. Since the primary focus of Fairphone is on social impacts,preparing an sLCA is also considered.

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CriticismLCA is often criticised about its rigid system boundaries that make accounting for changes inthe system difficult. It is also a heavy and costly tool:“... There are however barriers that reduce its implementation, especially in small andmedium-­sized enterprises (SMEs), such as data intensity, costs, and expertise required to runthe LCA studies. ... Despite the enormous efforts by the scientific community in advancing themethodology LCAs are rarely performed or used by SMEs.” (Quote from “LCA to go” website,www.lca2go.eu )“Comparative life-­cycle analysis is often used to determine a better process or product to use.However, because of aspects like differing system boundaries, different statistical information,different product uses, etc., these studies can easily be swayed in favor of one product orprocess over another in one study and the opposite in another study based on varyingparameters and different available data. There are guidelines to help reduce such conflicts inresults but the method still provides a lot of room for the researcher to decide what is important,how the product is typically manufactured, and how it is typically used.” Source: Wikipedia

For Fairphone it is less crucial to obtain different labels and certifications or to doubtlessly usecertain sustainability tools exclusively, because it continuously tries to challenge the status-­quoin the industry in an experimental approach in mind. This is also true to LCA as well. Thislearning-­by-­doing path certainly carries the possibility of making mistakes, but admitting thesemistakes in a transparent way strengthens the project in the long term.

Nevertheless an LCA shall comply with ISO 14040 and ISO 14044 standards. For assuringquality, ILCD Handbook will be used as a basis technical guide.

Further online information:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Life-­cycle_assessment

ILCD Handbookhttp://lct.jrc.ec.europa.eu/pdf-­directory/ILCD-­Handbook-­General-­guide-­for-­LCA-­DETAIL-­online-­12March2010.pdf

4. Problem identification in the industry

Transparency is a number one issue regarding big brands’ recent environmental productdeclarations. Even for similar phones the published results can differ substantially. For instancethe carbon footprint can vary by a factor of 5, however it is not likely at all that one smartphonehas a 5-­times higher impact than the other.“Companies point at the appropriate LCA standards, calculate with the same lifetime. It is justthe general complexity of Life Cycle Assessments, which inevitably has to be based on a couple

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of assumptions and external data sources. That makes comparisons of values published bydifferent companies so tricky. Or in other words: Carbon footprint data from different sourcesjust cannot be compared. It is a bit disappointing, but that's the state of the art currently."/Karsten Schischke (project LCA to go)/Companies do not publish their underlying assumptions, methods, measurements behind thegiven CO2 emissions. Indication of how certain their results is also a missing point.

5. Reasons for carrying out an LCA

First, Fairphone wants to provide information to consumers about its environmentalperformance, with special regard to carbon footprint in a more transparent way as is currentbusiness practice. Information should be presented in a way that also educate the members ofthe community about life-­cycle thinking in general.Second, mapping the product system as part of the scope definition holds a value in itself.Fairphone wants to open up the system of the smartphone and aims to track and trace as muchcomponents as possible, including rare earth elements and precious metals.Third, the LCA could identify the environmental hot spots in the product life cycle.Fourth, integrating the life-­cycle thinking into Fairphone’s decision-­making. By creating aproduct system model, Fairphone can set up different variables (e.g. the number of SIM slots, orthe no-­load power consumption of the charger) that could be changed later to see how thefootprint would differ. It would support decisions for the future Fairphones (e.g. setting up criteriafor supplier selection), monitoring and to make recommendations to partners in order to makesupply chain greener (e.g. with key environmental indicators).Above all, Fairphone wants to be a platform for future interaction between researchers,suppliers and the community, by creating a more open and transparent atmosphere to shareexperiences and information. There are also some interesting unexplored research areas whereFairphone can serve as a case-­study, for example social LCA, which aims to quantify theproducts’ impact on society instead of environment.

6. Expected LCA results

"In a sound LCA a multitude of impacts typically has to addressed. For the life cycle ofelectronics frequently the energy consumption in production and use is most relevant, and therelated emissions of power plants. This makes the carbon emissions a pretty good indicatorpointing us at the environmental hotspots. Resource depletion, toxicity impacts of some miningactivities and potentially also under uncontrolled treatment at end of life are aspects of concern,which are important, but cannot be addressed with the calculation of greenhouse gas emissions.Greenhouse gas emissions are mainly related to the highly complex production, less so to theelectricity consumption in the use phase. Given the high carbon investment a smartphoneshould be kept in use as long as possible. Anything that extends the lifetime is good to lower

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overall carbon emissions. Efficiency of the power supply is important and a highly efficientadapter might save 500 g CO2 per year. Opting for a Fairphone without an external power supplymight not only reduce e-­waste generation, but also save 1 kg of CO2 related to production of theadapter. Having control over the assembly of the Fairphone is a social issue, but rarely relatedto any environmental impacts. Much more important is semiconductor production.Semiconductors are produced in energy-­intensive cleanrooms, but technological progress atleast reduces carbon emissions per function over time. “ /Karsten Schischke (LCA to go)/

Approximate carbon footprint of a smartphone (experts’ estimate, no real life product) credit:Karsten Schischke (LCA to go)

Approximate carbon footprint of production of a smartphone (experts’ estimate, no real life

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product) credit: Karsten Schischke (LCA to go)

Approximate carbon footprint of production of semiconductors (experts’ estimate, no real lifeproduct) source: Karsten Schischke (LCA to go)

ABC Analysis of likely affected impact categories (A: important, C: unimportant contribution toimpact category) Source: Karsten Schischke

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7. Timeline

As a small social enterprise, Fairphone does not have the resources to conduct a very detailedLCA at first, and follows a step-­by-­step approach instead.Fortunately LCA is usually performed in iterations: in the first round a simplified approach is usedwith focusing only on the most important processes, then the following iterations gradually createa more advanced system that is closer to reality.

Iterative nature of LCA. From ILCD Handbook (2010, First edition) p. 25.

The first iterationThe goal of the first iteration is to get an overview of the impacts and create a nearly completeproduct system. Specific data is used as available through supplier inquiries, while the remainingdata will be made up of easily available secondary (generic) data sources (e.g. ecoinvent, similarstudies etc.).

The proposed timeline:

JULYDefining goals:This phase is almost finished by the time of creation of this document. It started with defininggoal and overall structure of LCA activities at Fairphone through a number of internal meetings.In parallel a continuing communication has been taking place with Karsten Schischke (LCAexpert, project LCA to go) about expected results and recommendations regarding LCAmethods, data and previous experiences (see above). The inclusion of possible externalresearch partners via creating an “LCA working group” and community involvement is also

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discussed.This continuing conversation led to the creation of this document and a blog post in theFairphone’s blog.

AUGUSTSetting up a working groupThis document will be sent contact will be made with the possible research partners, in order toset up a working group (see below).

Scope definitionDuring this important step we define the scope of the LCA as required by the standard, meaningthat defining what to analyze and how.

Questions to be answered during this phase: What is the function of the product and the functional unit?

Defining the function and functional unit is a requirement in LCA standard, because theway how we define the functional unit can have big effects to the outcome of the study.It answers the following questions: What is a smartphone for? What other things isfurther needed to satisfy its function (e.g. electricity, USB cable, service provider network,etc)? How, and for how long it is intended to be used?E.g.: Function of a smartphone: providing hardware for running Android or similar OS withWiFi, 3G, Camera. The phone has many of the latest features like Bluetooth module anda camera and provides functionalities like text and multimedia messaging, games, musicand video playing. (based on NOKIA 2005 LCA report) The functional unit in thisassessment is the use of a Fairphone mobile phone, its battery and charger, with anaverage life time (2 years) and average daily use time.

How the complete product system looks like?This is very important because the product system might be used for other purposes atFairphone. It should cover as much of the materials that are in the actual phone aspossible.

Which parts of the supply chain / life cycle are we including?What are the important processes in terms of environmental/social impacts? Aboutwhich processes can we find data easily?E.g. we should definitely include the manufacturing of:

Flash memory Printed Circuit Board (PCB) substrate SoC semiconductor and other semiconductors Battery Display

What are the cut-­off criteria?Which parts of the supply chain / life cycle are we NOT including? And why?E.g. Include communication networks?

What software do we use in the working group?

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What is the best choice in terms of usability, costs and data?E.g. openLCA:

Open source -­ fits to Fairphone’s philosophy Free to use GaBi and ecoinvent database can be accessed through it, Unique server-­client structure enables the remote access to joint LCA projects

What are the data quality requirements? To what extent can social impacts be addressed within this LCA?

Is it possible at this point? If so how can we obtain data?E.g. Use Andreas Ciroth’s report on sLCA of laptops:http://www.greendeltatc.com/uploads/media/LCA_laptop_final.pdf

How processes that will happen in the future are covered?E.g. The use phase of the product can be approximated by sending questionnaire aboutsmartphone usage patterns to the Fairphone community.

For what process can we use specific (primary) data?E.g. Use specific data (via supplier inquiries) as possible for the following parts:

Flash memory Printed Circuit Board (PCB) substrate SoC semiconductor and other semiconductors Battery Display

Which generic databases are able to provide good secondary data for theremaining processes?E.g. generic databases: ecoinvent (licence?), PROBAS (free access) (batteries andelectronics), MEErP (free access). Sometimes good estimations can be made based onthe specification of the product and previous studies. Eg. number of layers and area inthe case of PCBs, or the size and capacity of the chipset.

What impact assessment (LCIA) method(s) will be used?What scientific model to use to translate the inventory of emissions and otherinterventions to environmental problems?E.g. Ecological Scarcity 2011 LCIA method,Impact 2002+, EMEP etc.

What environmental impact categories will be covered?What are the environmental problems that our product the most contributes to?E.g.: look at carbon footprint and precious materials. Other impacts (ozone layer,ecotoxicity, eutrophication) only if data available.

Tasks related to Scope definition: send workgroup an initial proposal, and ask research partners to provide input in two

weeks, agree on distribution of future workload, set up server-­client database structure to enable remote access to database (possibly

using openLCA+SQL)

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mapping of workgroup participants after discussing questions and challenges prepare a draft of Goal and scope definition

(deliverable) Communicate the results This will end with a blogpost (Product system and scope) and

logbook of changes.

SEPTEMBER -­ OCTOBERLife-­cycle Inventory (LCI)This phase includes data collection and management using a LCA software which enables theworkgroup to build datasets remotely.

Tasks: Prepare data inquiry form for suppliers Prepare data collection in LCA software Contact with suppliers for primary data Research for possible other primary data sources Build database and include the datasets Include secondary (generic) databases for the remaining processes Solving multifunctionality (allocate impacts for Fairphone, when other products are also

made in the same process) Prepare LCI deliverable format Finalising LCI report

Life-­cycle Impact Assessment (LCIA)In this phase emissions and other substance flows in the Inventory are translated toenvironmental problems.

Tasks: Classification (assign emissions and other substance flows to impact categories or to

environmental problems in other words) Characterisation (calculate how much a flow contributes to the impact category) Calculation of results in each impact category Optionally normalisation: relate the impacts to the average (e.g. European) citizen’s

impact

NOVEMBERInterpretationIdentification of significant issues (key processes, parameters, assumptions and elementaryflows), evaluation of the first iteration (sensitivity, completeness, consistency check), report,conclusions, limitations and recommendations for possible following iterations.

Tasks Finalising first iteration report

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Ask internal and external reviewers to comment Post a blog (First iteration results) Communicate results in a comprehensible way (e.g. nice visualisations) in the website

7. Working group structure and participants

To make our interventions sustainable and effective, we engage relevant knowledgeable andlegitimate stakeholders and critical reviewers and include their perspectives in ourdecision-­making, so we take the appropriate ethical criteria and lessons learned into accountand translate into achievable actions.

The data and results from our research need to be critically reviewed, assessed and prioritized.Since Fairphone has been approached by several research entities including universities,research institutes and individuals offering help in conducting our LCA, we want to set up aresearch structure including those helping hands and expertise.

Ideally, we would therefore set up a small work group consisting of 8-­10 relevant, knowledgeable,legitimate local and global stakeholders. They will amongst others help us decide on theproceedings of the current research leads. Together, we will define the steps that need to betaken and formulate research questions in an on-­going manner as we seek improvements overtime.

First iteration participants

Coordination and research

Name Position at Fairphone Role in the project contact

Artur SZILÁGYI Research Assistant Coordinator /Research

artur@fairphone.com

Miquel BALLESTER Product Strategy Responsible miquel@fairphone.com

Bibi BLEEKEMOLEN Research & Outreach Internal supervisor bibi@fairphone.com

External partners (to be extended)

Name Institution Role topic

Karsten SCHISCHKE Fraunhofer /LCA2GO

Expert supervising LCA of electronics

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Andreas WALTER SustainabilityManagement inLüneburg

Master thesis Social LCA

Matthias STUCKI Zürich University ofApplied Sciences

Expert Environmental ProductDeclaration,Rare Earth Elements

Caine CHAN GreenCitizen Expert Recycling, End-­of-­Life

Josef SCHÖGGL University of Graz(ISIS)

Expert

Morgane FRITZ University of Graz(ISIS)

Expert

Thomas Gibon Norwegian Universityof Science andTechnology

Expert Data collection, anddatabasesRegional electricitymixes,Criticality Assessment

ANNEX

Other interesting questions and considerations From social viewpoint it worth to look at rare earth elements (REE) and metals,

they are produced in a very harsh way in China. Tantalum: there is no way to recycle (thermodynamics) but only used in one

capacitor so far. Integrated circuit production competes for water resources with rice fields in

Taiwan, it might have an indirect social impact. Possible future research areas after the first iteration

Integrating LCA to design tools e.g. CAD Social consideration of environmental impacts on a local /regional scale Inclusion of photovoltaic surface?

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