The materiality of the digital age Countering the perceived placelessness of digital technologies and globalization more generally Production Consumption Disposal Where does stuff come from and where does it go Is sustainable development possible IBM s Smarter Planet Campaign A thinking communicating planet will spur advances in everything from science and medicine to business and technology to possibilities not yet imagined and will help billions of people join the global economy When things communicate systems connect And when systems connect the world gets smarter Production Silicon Valley A high tech wafer Production It takes 1600 grams of fossil fuels required to produce a 2 gram microchip It takes 1500 3000 kilograms to produce a car 1000 3000 kg This means that materials used in the production of microchips are 630 times the mass of the final product making energy and materials use in microchip manufacturing orders of magnitude greater than that for automobiles Mercury lamps in a LCD TV Planned Obsolescence Designed for the Dump Cell Phone upgrades Digital TV conversion Software upgrades Can t replace iPod battery Disposable printers Planned Obsolescence This is what we do We eat our own children and we do it faster and faster that s how we keep our lead Andrew Grove founder of Intel Where is the line between innovation and waste There are 500 million obsolete computers in the U S alone In California that is 6 000 computers becoming obsolete each day 130 million cell phones are disposed of annually 20 24 million TV s and computers are stored annually in homes and offices Only 10 13 of unwanted and obsolete computers are recycled Production Key Complexities Global supply chains are not governable by the modern state Is it possible to decouple growth from resource use Consumption Perceived Obsolescence The Zack Morris cell phone or iPhone Don t Live With Phone Shame Consumption Consumption Consumption Consumption Key Complexities Our identities are bound up with what we consume What are the limits and opportunities of ethical shopping What would happen if everyone consumed like we do Disposal Disposal Foreign markets for e waste Disposal Foreign markets Disposal Key complexity How can we incorporate environmental justice with sustainability in the global supply chain Sustainable Development Sustainable development SD is a pattern of resource use that aims to meet human needs while preserving the environment so that these needs can be met not only in the present but also for generations to come Triple bottom line Economic social and environmental Sustainable Development in Practice Solutions for Production Extended Producer Responsibility EPR is one method of incentivizing producers of electronics to reduce the use of toxics in their products By requiring producers manufacturers brand names to take back their products at end of life producers would have an additional cost To reduce that cost they would eliminate toxics and redesign products so that they are easier to recycle Fee paid by manufacturer to collect for recycling Sustainable Development in Practice Solutions for Production An alternative to EPR would be a fee for each product based on life cycle analysis LCA LCA is a technique to assess environmental impacts associated with all the stages of a product s life from cradle to grave i e from raw material extraction through materials processing manufacture distribution use repair and maintenance and disposal or recycling Essentially an inventory of everything that goes into a product and everything that comes out Fee based on LCA For example if Hewlett Packard were charged an upfront fee for the environmental costs of an individual product like an HP dc5800 model then there would be an incentive to do eco friendly redesign Difficult because of the complexity of electronic products the different composition of plastics metals weight chemical use etc the sheer number of products and rapid innovation Sustainable Development in Practice Solutions for Recycling If unethical recyclers dump e waste on poor countries perhaps a labeling scheme for recyclers can help Similar to fair trade Sustainable Development in Practice Social Solutions Boycotts Living wage campaigns Protests Do it Yourself DIY Sustainable Development in Practice Solutions for social change production and consumption Open source technologies Universal access to the blueprints for technologies Rather than buy something and be controlled by corporate needs make it yourself Open Source Ecology The Global Village Construction Set Maker labs at the Chicago Library allowing members of the general public the opportunity to experiment with the cutting edge technologies Key assumptions Is SD about extending American levels of consumption and wealth to the rest of the world Does more wealth and consumption translate into higher quality of life Above a certain income level the correlation breaks down It is therefore possible to have a better quality of life without increasing material consumption Big Picture Sustainable development is not only about technology It is not only about living within limits It is also about democracy Big Picture Reduce inequality or impose limits Humanity is thus caught in a conundrum We are coming to understand ecological sustainability is primary indeed foundational for a sustainable society But to achieve ecological sustainability will require geopolitical stability founded on greater international material equity ad environmental justice At present all of these goals are threatened by a morally bankrupt and ecologically na ve economic growth model that actually increases inequity and spawns eco violence Little wonder that sustainability still recedes from our grasp Rees and Westra 2003