Fairphone has released its 2024 Impact Report which shows the things the company has done to live up to its reputation as an ethical, eco-friendly, and progressive electronics manufacturer.
The report is full of good news and shows how Fairphone has worked to improve and change how electronics are made. Throughout 2024, the company has reduced its CO2 emissions by 48% (compared to the 2022 report), became 100% e-waste neutral, expanded its list of impact materials, and gave out over $1 million dollars to supply chain workers as part of the company’s Living Wage Bonus.
To top it off, it did all these things while experiencing a 3% growth while the overall market is stagnant. You can read through the report here and learn more about these highlights as well as see everything the company has done to try to change the system.
I will admit I love what Fairphone is doing and how they are doing it. It’s extremely difficult to design and manufacture tech products that people want to buy, and making sure they will have a long support life and be serviceable makes it even harder.
The company even offers earbuds that have replaceable batteries and that’s something you simply can’t find from anyone else. There are products out there with better specs, but you won’t find one that’s more friendly to the planet we live on and is built to last the way Fairphone’s are.
The problem is that Fairphone can’t fix or change anything on its own. Setting a goal like making sure you recycle an equal amount of material for each product you sell and meeting it is awesome, and seeing Fairphone able to do it is amazing. But this is just a drop in the bucket.
In 2024 Fairphone sold 103,053 smartphones. 103 thousand is a lot of anything, but Apple sells that many on iPhone launch day and Samsung sells that many over a good weekend. This is where the real change has to happen.
Being realistic, Apple and Samsung could never do the things a small company like Fairphone can. And I know both companies are trying to be producers of ethical and eco-friendly products. The ideas are there, it’s the reality of pulling it off that gets in the way.
Imagine Apple giving out living wage bonuses to cobalt miners or assemblers. Or Samsung selling a million phones and recycling a million others to keep balance. Words like carbon neutral and zero emissions are grand, and both companies are working towards those goals, but it’s also time to see smaller, yet equally effective changes.
If Fairphone can build a phone that will last you at least five years or Bluetooth earbuds with replaceable batteries in each and the case, so can Apple or Samsung. Why aren’t they?
You have to love seeing what Fairphone is doing and I think all of us wish them continued success. We also have to ask the tech giants the hard questions about why a tiny company from the Netherlands is doing what they can’t.