Sustainability Report & Carbon Offsetting | The Light Phone
Sustainability Report & Carbon Offsetting
August 2020
Carbon Impact of The Light Phone II
Based off the full sustainability report on Light Phone II
At the start of 2020 we set out to learn about the environmental impact of the Light Phone II as it relates to climate change. We began by carrying out a study focusing on carbon emissions from the different phases of our device’s life, from production to disposal.
We found that in conservative scenarios, our phone is tied to ~61 kgs of CO2 (eq.) over its lifetime, the majority of which come from the phone’s production. Specific components like the phone’s display and integrated circuits are the most carbon intensive, something that is common with other electronic devices.
The average emissions of a person living in the US is 16 metric tons of CO2 a year (the highest in the world). 61 kgs compared to some of our larger emissions sources such as flying seems like a small percentage, but everything matters if we are to reduce our individual footprint to 2 tons by 2050. To achieve this massive reduction, every expenditure needs to be accounted for.
One area where the Light Phone II has an advantage compared to typical smartphones is in its low power consumption. The phone’s e-ink display, in conjunction with intentional feature limitations and the goal of "being used as little as possible", means that it needs less energy to operate day to day, which not only reduces the emissions from daily charging, but also means that the phone can use a smaller battery.
Another benefit of a phone with less material inputs has to do with electronic waste. Electronics typically contain metals that can be damaging to humans and the environment if not handled properly. When a device reaches the end of its life it should be recycled safely, but because doing so can be costly, in the past few decades we have seen a sharp rise in electronic waste (e-waste) that goes to landfills and unsafe recycling operations both domestically and abroad.
We still have a long way to go when it comes to improving the sustainability of our devices. Based on our research, we settled on both short term and long term plans to lessen the Light Phone’s negative impacts.
In the short term we are now offering the option to offset the emissions of your Light Phone II as you are checking out. We’ve partnered with Hudson Carbon located in Columbia County, NY that practices 'carbon farming,' which we see as an equally exciting and impactful carbon sequestration method.
Light is matching offset purchases 1-to-1. At a price of $100/ton of CO2, offsetting half of the 61kg of embedded emissions of the Light Phone II will cost users $3.05.
Users who have already purchased phones also have the option of retroactively purchasing offsets by visiting this link.
In the medium term, we’re in the process of developing formal end of life guidelines for recycling your phone when it’s no longer usable. We’re also working on software improvements that will make the Light Phone easier to use as a primary device for more of our users, which can cut back on the impacts associated with owning and using two phones at once.
In the long term, we’ll be incorporating our learnings into the design of future Light products. One of the areas in which we feel we can make a significant impact is to address is repairability and therefore longevity of using the device. A removable battery could have made a huge difference, which the current Light Phone II does not have.
Finally, we hope that since now we have laid the groundwork of understanding the sustainability of our phone, this will carry over into future reporting and communications with our users. The carbon footprint of the Light Phone II, or any product for that matter, is just one aspect of the entire environmental and social impacts of a product. We want to continue to treat sustainability as not just a ‘nice to have’ but a critical part of putting a product out in the world.
Thanks for reading,
The Light Team