More than 50 million tons of electronic waste are produced every year, says co-founder of refurbed Peter Windischhofer. The online marketplace for refurbished electrical devices wants to combat this. But “refurbed” wants to do even more, namely to quantify its impact on sustainability. That’s why the Fraunhofer Institute was commissioned to carry out a study that would make the potential of refurbishment for the environment and the circular economy tangible. The calculation model developed measures the CO2 footprint of smartphones, tablets and laptops offered on refurbed.
Electronic waste: one of the fastest growing waste categories
There is little public transparency about the extent to which society benefits from the circular economy. If it is known how big their ecological impact actually is compared to the linear economy, then more people will consume sustainably and make fact-based purchasing decisions. Peter Windischhofer, co-founder of refurbed, and Paul Rudorf, research associate at Fraunhofer Austria, are convinced of this. Together they want to close the information gap and have developed an ISO-certified calculation model for this purpose. This can quantify greenhouse gas emissions, virtual water consumption and electronic waste and gives refurbished products ecological key figures.
Life cycle assessment data for more than 10,000 electronic products
“Sustainability is important to us, but we find it difficult to implement it,” says Rudorf about the consumer-oriented society. In a preliminary study carried out in 2023, the above values were already analyzed for five specific products – however, rough average values were used. The goal of the new major study was to evaluate as many refurbed devices as possible. Different product variants that can be purchased on the platform were analyzed over 40 to 45 days: more than 4,000 smartphones, 1,500 tablets and 5,000 laptops – a total of more than 10,000 electrical devices. In addition, they were on site at reference dealers to carry out surveys. “The data can be transferred to other product groups,” says Fraunhofer researcher Rudorf.
ISO-certified calculation model measures sustainability
In order to generate a meaningful ecological indicator, a life cycle analysis of reference products was carried out. Part of the refurbishment process includes the transport route, the spare parts required for refurbishment and the energy generated when using the device. Refurbished dealers were also asked about their dealer activity. What energy supply do you rely on, do you repair the devices passed on to refurbed or do you just prepare them visually? All of this technical data was poured into a calculation model that created ecological key figures.
Two European countries supplied with 100 percent clean energy
Saving emissions: 5 categories
According to the Fraunhofer study, the CO2 saving potential is very high. For smartphones, customers can already be told exactly how much CO2 he or she has saved for the product purchased. If you buy an iPhone 11 Pro Max, which is a device with a very large display, you can save up to 100 kilograms of CO2. Specifically, according to Rudorf, there are five emission categories in the refurbishment process, each of which influences the overall emissions. These include: use including energy consumption (73 percent), processing through spare parts (16 percent), transport purchasing (8 percent), marketplace refurbed (2 percent) and transport sales (2 percent).
refurbed: “We want to make consumption more sustainable”
Windischhofer emphasizes that the ecological footprint of electronic products is enormous. It is an invisible problem. “We believe people will continue to consume. The sad thing is, this has an impact on our environment. We have to solve this problem quickly. We need to change the “how” and move from the linear economy to the circular economy. This is the only way to have a significant impact on our environment.” The refurbed founder claims to have saved 270,000 tons of CO2 through refurbed products since it was founded – that would be equivalent to the emissions of 58,300 cars in one year.
European asset “circular economy”: Scandinavia as a model
According to the founder, circular economy can create a valuable asset for the European economy. According to him, products should be returned to the cycle instead of being imported from Asia. “It’s time to take responsibility,” said Windischhofer. By this he means the following four points: Standards must be defined transparently, pioneers should show what is already possible, manufacturers must be asked to provide better data and it is the responsibility of a company to provide consumers with reliable information. Scandinavia is a pioneer when it comes to circular economy: In the north it is normal for companies to buy refurbished electronics because the benefits have already been recognized there. refurbed will soon expand into new markets. What these are will be announced shortly, Windischhofer concluded.
Mazing: Viennese AR startup receives six-figure investment from California