Smartphones, flat screens, game consoles: New models, high-resolution screens, faster streaming and wider data connections are driving demand – even if the old devices still work perfectly. A lack of repairability and supposedly planned obsolescence also promote resource and energy consumption. And there are still no mandatory standards such as purchasing raw materials from conflict-free sources, reusing used devices or checking power consumption during use.

Manufacturers are driving sustainability by designing devices for circularity, developing take-back systems and dismantle robots, using more recycled material and using intelligent energy-saving features. It is also important to close the material cycle through repeated recycling. This paves the way for circular business models with product-as-a-service models. Ultimately, it is important to make production itself environmentally friendly and based on renewable energies and to decarbonize transport logistics.

The consumer electronics industry is one of the most competitive, fastest-developing industries in the world, with hundreds of thousands of jobs in globalized supply chains. It can make crucial contributions in all areas of transformation. For example, when it uses compression methods and energy efficiency to help manage the exploding data volumes in streaming and 5G applications and the associated energy consumption. At the same time, smartphones enable numerous sensible and more climate-friendly business models, for example in ride and bike sharing, mobile public transport tickets or even trade and payment transactions in countries in the global south. Digital devices make circular business models easier.

The industry includes, for example, the production of consumer electronics devices as well as smartphones and game consoles.