Course:ELEC300E/CaseStudies/FrameworkLaptops
Context: Embodied Environmental Costs and Repair
| Framework Laptops |
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| Content / Topics |
| Grief Bots |
| AI Chatbots |
| AI Ethics |
| Relevant Analysis Strategies or Tools |
| Decision Impact Assessment |
| Plutchik's Wheel |
| Needs Analysis |
Repair and Repairability
As discussed in this case study, a large portion of the environmental footprint of consumer electronics is embodied.
Operational Costs: Energy / resource utilization during operation - ie. when you are using your laptop.
Embodied Costs: Energy / resource utilization / environmental impacts incurred when a product is manufactured, sold, transported and thrown out.
A lot of the environmental impacts associated with computing are embodied:
- Consumer Electronic Manufacturing: Around 75% of the carbon emissions of a Macbook came from hardware manufacturing.
- Datacenter Construction: A significant portion of datacenter emissions are associated with the construction of datacenters and manufacturing datacenter electronics (eg. between 35% and 82% for a Facebook datacenter, depending on how much renewable energy was used during operation).
- eWaste: eWaste is the fastest growing category of solid waste. 62 million tonnes of ewaste was produced in 2022 - and we are on track to reach 82 million tonnes per year by 2030. Electronics (and consequently ewaste) contains various chemicals, many of which are highly toxic and dangerous for both people and ecosystems.
- Mining: Modern electronics contain over 60 different minerals, which are mined in countries across the world, particularly in the Global South. The supply chains supporting the manufacturing of electronics have been associated with socially and environmentally damaging practices
Repair and Repairability
One strategy to reduce the unnecessary consumption of new electronics is to increase rates of repair. This can be done by increasing a products repairability. But unlike power consumption or speed, repairability can be a little tricky to quantify. Through interviews with experts, researchers have defined a few important aspects of repairability, including:
- Disassemble-ability: Is the product glued together, or is it easy to open up?
- Documentation and clarity: Is there a manual that explains how things work? Are parts clearly labelled?
- Availability of parts and tools: Would a person need specialized equipment to fix common problems?
- Modularity: If one part breaks, can it be substituted with a new part, or is the whole device broken?
So is your computer repairable? You can find out on iFixit, which rates the repairability of different products based on these factors.
Case: Framework Laptops
Framework laptops was founded in 2020, with the goal of offering laptops that are repairable and upgrade-able. On their website, they outline their value proposition:
"Consumer electronics is broken. We’ve all had the experience of a broken screen or connector, worn out battery, bloated, locked-down software, or filled up storage forcing replacement of an otherwise workable product. Individually, this is irritating; globally though, it’s much worse. We create over fifty million tons of e-waste each year. That’s 6kg or 13lb per person on earth per year, made up of our former devices.
It doesn’t have to be this way. These are solvable problems when products are designed from the start to last longer and respect your rights. The conventional wisdom is that making products repairable, open, and modular makes them thicker, heavier, uglier, less robust, and more expensive. We’re proving that wrong and fixing consumer electronics, one category at a time. Our philosophy is that by trusting you with the access and information you need to truly own your products, we can make fantastic devices that are still easy to repair and open to customization across both the hardware and the software.
Every computer we ship comes with the only tool you need to replace any part of it in the box. We offer both ready-to-go, pre-assembled versions and our DIY Editions where you can bring your own memory, storage, and OS, including your preferred Linux distro. We also release as much of our work as we can under open source licenses, with hardware documentation, 3D printable designs, and open source firmware available on GitHub."
You can read more about Framework laptops on their website, including a full life-cycle analysis of the environmental impacts of their products.
Briefly browse the Framework website and the website for another laptop manufacturer like Dell, Acer or Apple. What features are emphasized on the Framework website? Do any design decisions stand out, and why? What values are demonstrated through design decisions and business practices?
Discussion Questions
Here are a few questions to help you begin analyzing the issues discussed in this case study. The purpose of these questions is to prompt reflection and further consideration: there are no right or wrong answers!
- Emotional Responses: Remember the last time you replaced your phone or laptop? What contextual factors, emotions or needs impacted your decision making?
- Contradictory viewpoints and outcomes: Do physical products like laptops can embody different viewpoints or values? If so, can you give an example? If not, why not?
- Positive action: What is one hopeful takeaway from this case study or a potential positive outcome? How can you contribute to this positive change?
- Interruptions and invitations: Framework emphasizes open source software and firmware and provides details about how its products are designed and manufactured, and their environmental impact? Why do you think this is? Do you think 'openness' and facilitating collaboration is related to repair and sustainability?
- Physical connections: Take a look at your laptop! You might try taking it apart to peek inside - but if you aren't comfortable with that, look it up on iFixit, and see if you can find a repair guide or manual online. Do you think its repairable?
- Social and Historical Context: Imagine a 'repairer', a 'designer', a 'computer architect' and a 'computer enthusiast/hobbyist'. What associations, biases or assumptions might come to mind? Do these assumptions or associations make repair and computer DIY project seem more or less accessible or appealing?
- Positive Practices: What is one concrete action that you could take, or a practice that you could adopt in your personal, academic or professional life in response to this case study?