Originally published at: We just released the industry's first ever nature report. - Fairphone
Like it or not, capitalism and nature are deeply linked. Think about it. Over half of the world’s GDP depends on natural capital. We need unpolluted land, clean water, pollution-free air. Ironically, while multinational corporations across the planet report record-breaking profits in the billions year on year, these natural resources they depend on are facing unimaginable loss. Wildlife populations have declined by 73% in the past fifty years, and parts of our planet are approaching dangerous tipping points.
Obvious as it may seem, the electronics industry is still to blame for this negative impact on nature and biodiversity across the globe. Rampant resource depletion, freshwater use, biodiversity loss. This is the collateral damage we collectively impose as an industry. Yet, most sustainability reporting in tech almost exclusively looks at emissions and renewable energy, relying on biodiversity data that is often incomplete, high-level, or decades out of date.
How do we fix this on a systemic level?
Businesses need to start seeing biodiversity loss as a core business risk. We need to think beyond just lowering emissions. Even technologies branded as ‘green’ can be deeply destructive to nature if we don’t look beyond emissions. If we don’t change how we measure impact, we will keep solving one problem while accelerating another.
That’s where our new Nature and Biodiversity Assessment comes into play. It’s the first such report of its kind within the consumer electronics manufacturing industry and uses the Science-Based Targets for Nature (SBTN) framework as a base, supplemented by our own lifecycle assessment data and supply chain research. The report highlights how mineral extraction and electronics manufacturing impact nature on a more granular level, mapping instances of water pollution, soil degradation, and biodiversity loss.
“We’ve been optimising for carbon while ignoring the systems that actually keep the planet alive. This report is a first but crucial step in understanding the full extent of the negative impact that tech manufacturers make during the production process.”
Monique Lempers, Fairphone Chief Impact Officer
Here are the highlights
Mineral extraction and processing pose the single greatest risk to nature across a smartphone’s lifecycle, driven by pollution, water use, and land disruption. Rather than grouping mining activities into broad, generic categories, our methodology focuses on 24 priority minerals (including gold, tin, cobalt, nickel, and lithium), allowing us to trace biodiversity risks far deeper into the supply chain than is standard practice. This helped us identify 11 global mining hotspots in mining operations across Brazil, Guinea, India, Indonesia, Myanmar, Peru, and the Philippines. The biodiversity in these hotspots faces severe pressure from the extraction of materials essential to modern electronics.
Confirming what we already know, manufacturing itself carries a heavy footprint as well, with a major dependency on water supply. Around 75% of a smartphone’s total environmental impact occurs before it reaches consumers. Water pollution and soil contamination emerged as critical but underreported risks linked to the manufacturing process. Within components, it’s the production of printed circuit boards, displays, and batteries that creates the highest pressures.
The available data doesn’t tell the full story
With governments and investors increasingly implementing frameworks like CSRD (Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive) that’s mandatory in Europe, and TNFD (Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures), companies are now required to report their environmental impacts, specifically focusing on biodiversity and nature. However, with the available biodiversity data being terribly outdated or missing, nature loss currently remains invisible in corporate reporting.
A blueprint for what comes next
Our immediate next steps involve further measuring our impact while simultaneously reducing and remediating problem areas with our indirect suppliers and through joint initiatives. We’re publishing the assessment and its methodology in full, so that other players in the wider tech industry also start moving beyond climate-only strategies.
Using the framework we have outlined, you can assess your supply chain’s nature impact and set actionable goals and targets that go beyond reducing emissions. Let’s collaborate wherever possible by sharing insights and knowledge, supporting local nature impact assessments in common hotspots, and setting up multi-stakeholder platforms with local communities to design and implement lasting solutions that benefit everyone. After all, the more we work together, the more impact we can make.
You can read the full Nature and Biodiversity Assessment here.