Life-Cycle Assessment of Consumer Electronics: A review of methodological approaches

Because of unfolding ecological concerns, our society has begun to explore new solutions to mitigate damage to and restore our shared living space on planet earth. Products and services are essential to the market economy; however, their social benefits also come with broad ecoenvironmental loadings. In 2015, it has been estimated that at least 3.5 billion consumer electronic devices such as mobile phones, tablets, laptops, and desktop PCs/monitors will be shipped [1]. Manufacturers want to be able to understand how to decrease, as much as possible, the potential ecoenvironmental impacts caused by each product. The leading methodology and tool to answer this need today is life-cycle assessment (LCA), in all its forms and variations. LCA has been standardized for all types of products by the International Organization for Standardization [1] and for electronics by the European Telecommunications Standards Institute. Despite standardization, the variability and inconsistency of comparable (e.g., laptops) consumer electronics (CE) LCA studies are still a challenge.