Just in case anyone missed today’s Fairphone news:
Fairphone 2 New Life Edition is back in stock, now at 299 €.
Also see today’s blog post by Monique to learn more:
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I also was offered one of these as a warranty replacement, which I think is good. My only wish was a perfect display, as I really took care of mine (before the internal flash died - my guess). We’ll see… I’m waiting for a final notification that the phone is on the way.
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Don’t worry!
I can’t imagine Fairphone to sell refurbished phones with anything else than a perfect display.
From the blogpost that @urs_lesse has linked:
In order to still get the most out of the valuable materials in these used phones, a selection of them goes back to the factory. There they are refurbished (damaged parts are replaced with new parts), tested again to ensure quality and restored to their original condition. These aren’t just “second hand” phones; they’re as good as new.
Plus: It’s not the first time, they are selling refurbished phones, as this thread (started july 2017) clearly shows. 
And there were no complaints regarding those refurbished phones.
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No, I got one for my mother, over a year ago. She is really happy with it. And as an unexpected bonus she got it with the upgraded camera modules. At that time the modules were just came out and the description tells it will come with the old modules.
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The most recent supply of the Fairphone 2 New Life Edition has sold out.
It’s nice to read though that it will be back … “by mid-June”:
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The phone will be back in stock tomorrow, tuesday, 11 June 2019.
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I suppose you highlighted tomorrow to make clear it will be on 11 June.
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10 days on, the latest batch of Fairphone 2 New Life Edition phones is sold out. And this time, it sounds like now you need to wait until the next big thing.
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They are shipped back and forth to China? Isn’t that a bit crazy?
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Transport makes up only 6.8% of the CO2 during FP2’s Lifecycle.
Source: How sustainable is the Fairphone 2
So it’s certainly more sustainable to ship the phones back and forth than producing new phones.
My guess is that they need to do the whole thing in the factory in China because they have all the testing facilities in place there.
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Keep in mind that transportation via ship isn’t a large hit on Co2 emission. The ship itself is, but if you look at all the cargo it can contain, it is going to be much more efficient than an airplane or even a car. So next time you have to wait a month for AliExpress shipment, you can sleep well with regards to Co2 emissions from the shipment (says nothing about the product).
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All true, regarding CO2; but I guess the simple reason is, that they have no factory with all the special assembly lines and the necessary stock of spare-parts in Europe.
Disassembling, testing and reassembling is done by those, that produced the phones in the first place, and they are experienced and equipped to do the testing like @Stefan said.
Btw.: Even if CO2 for the transport is not that much of a factor, that can’t be a valid argument in my opinion. Because if it were, buying a Fairphone could be considered unnecessary as well, as the percentage of enhancement on social welfare, etc. can hardly be measured regarding the phone market as such.
I hope we do agree, that doing good does count in small quantities/measures as well. And saving on CO2 whenever possible is a good thing, as I see it. Cargo ships are running on heavy oil, which is a very, very dirty stuff to burn.
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According to the linked blog post they use air freight (and they use it for a reason: time saving) (bold/italic by me):
Looking at the overall life cycle, transport increases global warming potential (GWP) by just 6.8% — most of which is from air freight. The only way to reduce this would be to use rail transport, which is unfortunately too slow, unsafe, and underdeveloped to be a real option at the moment.
Hmm… I hope they saved a few spare in their warehouse - they are supposed to replace the faulty one they originally sent me… 
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You bet on that.
They sure will have a stack of spare parts as well.
Don’t worry, for warranty cases they need to have those supplies.
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That’s untrue then, the other way to reduce this would be to use container ships.
Folks, you are aware that Stefan simply meant “ship” as in “send”, aren’t you? Neither Fairphone nor Stefan meant to hoist the sails.
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Well, we of course don’t know the transportation-possibilities they have checked and the results.
Maybe shipping takes too much time, as they have to add their cargo to other freight, 'cause I doubt, they will fill a container on their own.
And I am not sure when it comes to the environmental impact of the different transportation methods. Although this site makes cargo-shipping look much more ecological then airfreight.
https://ecotransit.org/calculation.en.html
https://ecotransit.org/calculation.de.html
https://ecotransit.org/calculation.fr.html
I have tried the standard version for 1 container from Amsterdam, NL, to Shenzen, P.R.C.
To me it seems Rail would be the most eco-friendly way for transportation.
Next are truck and sea-ship, while airplane is the least eco-friendly way.
The scientific stuff behind this calculator must be this paper:
Ecological Transport Information Tool for Worldwide Transports - Methodology and Data Update
If you are an expert you can change the relevant factors:
- Emission standard
- Load factor
- Empty trip factor
- Fuel type
- Vehicle type/ship type etc.
I always wonder, what one can find online.
I guess, that would be the most sustainable means of transportation of all.
For transatlantic transports there is this company:
Anyone surprised, it’s a dutch company? Not me!
Here’s a four year old list of sail freight projects around the world
And here’s an article on the top 7 green ship concepts using wind energy
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