Confronting the consumer device ‘cool’ dilemma in an increasingly resource scarce world.
“Earth Overshoot Day marks the date when humanity’s demand for ecological resources and services in a given year exceeds what Earth can regenerate in that year.”- Global Footprint Network
Earth overshoot day is really concerned with the renewable resources of this planet, this year falling on August 22nd, but the concept of accepting that the resources of this beautiful world are finite can and should be applied to any consideration be it home purchases, business planning, holidays…
Whilst PacSol is concerned as a business with helping companies reduce resource in time, materials and equipment, we would always start from ‘where you are’ – look at what you already have and utilise that as the start, don’t just throw it all out! Our company director Mark Wheadon recently had the classic consumer dilemma looking at mobile phone replacement and he chose to document his thoughts.
Replacing my 5 year old phone
Okay, it might be strange to keep a phone for 5 years but I still quite like my Samsung S6 Edge. Alas, security updates finished a while ago and I have a problem with the camera shield that means I get black blobs on my photos.
So, what to buy? Stick with Samsung or try something else? There is of course a vast array of choice, enough to make you wish there was a lot less choice. Do I need four cameras and a higher resolution than my 27” computer monitor? Probably not.
So, I came across FairPhone. A bit like Fairtrade coffee – you have to pay more because the saving you make from unfair trading is in the health care and education of the workers who grow and harvest the coffee or whatever. I sometimes wonder if there ought to be a law which labels non FairTrade coffee as ‘UnFairtrade’ or ‘Exploitative’ coffee. I wonder what that would do to sales of such items!
Phones are not coffee, but they have precious metal in them and other resources that we are realising are exhaustible. Add to that the treatment of the miners of these precious metals in the Congo, then perhaps we should look at this ethically.
And even as I write this I feel myself wanting a flashy phone with lots of features – it’s human nature I guess. I settled on the Nokia 8.3 5g – it looks cool, has 5g, a decent camera and not too expensive (less than £500).*
The specs on the FairPhone are less impressive but I suspect good enough for what I need and better than my S6. It lacks bloatware and is designed so that I can replace any bits, especially the battery, that I might need to. In addition, updates are available for 5 years. No, the FairPhones doesn’t look quite as cool, but there may be other talking points, such as using my (modest) purchasing power in a sustainable and fair way. Perhaps I need to redefine ‘cool’ …
*02/10 update – having thought about it, Mark reversed his decision on the Nokia and went with the FairPhone!
Mark Wheadon, Director. September 2020
#pacsoluk #environment #earthovershootday
