The reduction of pollution and emissions is vital to all of us, minimizing CO2 and energy consumption is an important concern. But getting electronics really sustainable is challenging, since an average assembled circuit board contains about half of the elements in the periodic system, and most components on it are difficult to recycle. So what can we do as a manufacturer? We did a deep look into how to migitate the effects on the planet, and identified the main key points:
Design for a lifespan as long as possible
- Firmware updates: We are committed to provide updates as long as technically feasible. No product should be thrown away just because of a missing firmware update.
- No cloud lock-in: We don't want our customers to be dependent on some kind of cloud service, which renders the product unusable when the service becomes unavailable.
- No vendor lock-in: We believe that customers should experience maximum interoptability, without any unnecessary restrictions. For example, our SFP slots are not tied to a specific manufacturer of modules.
- Design for future change: Products are designed with future extensibility in mind, i.e. extension ports and enough resources to cope with yet unknown requirements.
- Avoid components with limited lifespan: Most electronic devices fail at some point due to electrolytic capacitors becoming dry. That's why we avoid them wherever possible. And we don't use tantalum capacitors because tantalum is a high-conflict mineral.
- Design with repair in mind: As long as parts are available, we are committed to provided a repair service for all our products, no matter how old they are. After the warranty period, this doesn't come free but at a reasonable price.
Manufacture responsibly
- Our products are assembled at our long-term production partner in Germany, who is committed to upheld the highest environmental and social standards.
Packaging and transport
- Packaging: Prefer simple cardboard "brown-box", foam-free packaging made from recycled over fancy but eyecandy-only high gloss packaging.
- Transport: Use sea or rail transport over airfreight when possible.