Fairphone created the world's first ethical, modular smartphone

Fairphone
Type of organisation or company
Country
Netherlands
City
Amsterdam
Language for original content
Project elaborated in partnership
No
Start/End date
Ongoing
Yes
Type of funding
Fairphone - Fabian Hühne
Description

Fairphone aims to create positive social and environmental impact from the beginning to the end of a phone's life cycle. In addition to using fair materials and providing good working conditions, this includes:

Long-lasting design

Fairphone is fighting against a market trend where the average phone is replaced every 18 months, creating a huge environmental impact.

Reuse and recycling

Fairphone sells spare parts and offers repair tutorials to help make one's phone useful for as long as possible. The take-back program supports the reuse/recycling of old phones. Fairphone is also researching the best way to recycle its phones by making them easier to dismantle. It is also working with partners to improve local collection efforts in countries struggling with electronic waste.

Product-as-a-Service

Fairphone has also begun developing innovative business models in partnership with Circle Economy, Sustainable Finance lab and a set of financial, legal and supply chain advisors. The Circular Phone report, released in 2018, provides practical answers to common financing pitfalls for circular businesses, using Fairphone as the real-life example.

Main results
  • Fairphone has designed and produced an innovative smartphone that is designed to be long-lasting, uses conflict-free tin and tungsten and has a transparent supply chain whose environmental footprint is minimal.
  • The modular design featured in Fairphone 3 represents a groundbreaking innovation towards the circular production of consumer electronics, with the phone receiving full marks for repairability
  • More than 175,000 Fairphones have been produced and sold since the original model's launch in 2013.  Nearly 100,000 waste phones have been shipped back from Ghana to date in order to extract and reuse the minerals within.