What technology really hides
Reading time: 5 minutes – Sources: ADEME, United Nations Environment Programme, manufacturer data
Before you turn on your computer, it has already travelled the world
Most of us only start thinking about a computer once we turn it on. Yet by that point, the bulk of its environmental impact is already behind it.
80% of a digital device’s environmental impact occurs during manufacturing, and only 20% during use. This figure turns our intuitive thinking about tech consumption on its head. Turning off your screen when idle or unplugging your charger is useful, but it doesn’t offset the manufacturing of a new device. Ademe
Understanding why means understanding what a computer actually contains.
Phase 1 – Extraction: rare resources, often difficult conditions
A standard computer contains more than 60 different materials: aluminum, copper, gold, tin, and so-called “critical” metals such as cobalt, tantalum, and lithium.
These metals are extracted from all corners of the globe, often in environmentally and socially fragile areas. Cobalt, used in batteries, comes largely from the Democratic Republic of Congo, sometimes under dangerous and unregulated conditions. Lithium, essential for batteries, requires massive water consumption in regions already facing drought. DigiHarmo
The Great Lakes region of Central Africa alone supplies roughly half of the world’s tantalum, used in the mini-capacitors of phones and laptops. Royal Museum for Central Africa
This isn’t a criticism of digital technology—it’s a reality of its supply chain that too few consumers and organizations are aware of.
Phase 2 – Manufacturing: a massive footprint, concentrated in time
Once extracted, materials are processed, assembled, and transported, often across several continents, before becoming a finished device.
The average carbon footprint of a laptop is estimated at around 246 kg of CO₂ over its full life cycle, with roughly 70% generated during the manufacturing phase alone. data.gouv.fr
To put that figure in perspective: it’s the equivalent of a car trip of nearly 1,500 km—and it’s produced before the device is even unboxed.
Using a computer or tablet for 4 years instead of 2 reduces its total environmental impact by 50%. Length of use is therefore the most powerful lever available to a user or an organization.
Phase 3 – Use: less polluting than we think, but not neutral
A device’s electricity consumption during use accounts for a minority share of its total footprint—but it isn’t negligible, and it depends heavily on the energy mix of the region where the device is used.
In Quebec, where electricity is mostly hydroelectric, the footprint linked to use is significantly lower than in Central Europe or Asia, where coal is still dominant. This is an important nuance: the impact of the same device varies depending on where it’s used.
What doesn’t vary: the longer a device is used, the lower its total footprint per year of use becomes.
Phase 4 – End of life: recycling is useful, but not enough
When a device reaches the end of its life, several paths are possible. The circular economy ranks them clearly: reuse first, refurbishment second, recycling as a last resort.
Reuse means the device is redistributed as-is, with no technical intervention. It never leaves the useful cycle.
Refurbishment means the device is diagnosed, repaired, upgraded, and then redistributed. It gets a second functional life. In both cases, the value accumulated during manufacturing (materials, energy, labour) is preserved.
Recycling, on the other hand, comes into play when these two options are no longer possible. It allows some raw materials to be recovered, but destroys most of the value invested in the device. Once melted down and broken apart, all the work of extraction, processing, and assembly is lost.
That’s why recycling can’t be the default answer. It’s useful, but it comes too late in the chain to offset what has already been consumed.
The numbers confirm this. According to an ADEME study (2022), buying a refurbished laptop instead of a new one avoids between 43% and 97% of annual environmental impacts. That gap is explained largely by the most underestimated factor in digital technology: how long a device stays in service.
What this means in practice
Understanding the life cycle of a digital device means understanding that the most impactful decisions aren’t made during daily use, but at the point of purchase and at the point of disposal.
Three questions worth asking, whether you’re an individual, an organization, or a business:
Before buying: Does this device need to be new? Certified refurbished equipment can serve exactly the same functions, with its manufacturing footprint already absorbed.
Before replacing: Is the current device really at the end of its life? Slowness, a weakening battery, or an aging operating system are often solvable problems—not signals to replace.
Before discarding: Could the device have a second life? Refurbishing it or donating it to an organization can extend its usefulness by several years, and spare someone else from buying new.
