From Smartphone to Futurephone - Assessing the Environmental Impacts of Different Circular Economy Scenarios of a Smartphone Using LCA. Güvendik, M. Master's thesis, Delft University of Technology, Delft, August, 2014.
From Smartphone to Futurephone - Assessing the Environmental Impacts of Different Circular Economy Scenarios of a Smartphone Using LCA [link]Paper  abstract   bibtex   
The lack of literature on using life cycle assessment (LCA) for increasing environmental performance raises the need for concepts or eco-design tools to be combined with LCA to answer the question of how to strategize and take actions based on LCA results. This study intends to address this need by using mobile phones as a case study and answering the question: How can the environmental performance of the Fairphone be improved? In order to answer this question, an LCA was performed for the Fairphone to evaluate its current environmental impacts. The boundaries of the system consist of the material extraction, production of the components, assembly of the Fairphone, transportation of the components to the assembly plant, transportation of the Fairphone from the assembly plant to customers, electricity use for charging the phone and recycling of the Fairphone and the battery. The functional unit of the system is defined as “the use of a Fairphone and its battery with an average lifetime (3 years) and with the average daily use time of the Fairphone users”. The data obtained from the bill of materials and dismantling of a Fairphone was used to model the system in CMLCA software using the ecoinvent database. Additional data was collected from the assembly plant and Fraunhofer Institute. Data about the use phase of the life cycle was collected from 823 Fairphone users via an online user questionnaire. Using the ReCiPe 2008 method, the characterization results were calculated for three impact categories: metal depletion, climate change and human toxicity. Fairphone results in 4.0425 kg Fe-eq in metal depletion, 16.404 kg CO2-eq in climate change and 13.961 kg 1,4-DCB-eq in human toxicity. Contribution analysis was applied in order to identify the components and phases with the highest impact within the three categories. Subsequently, ideas are provided to improve the environmental performance of the identified hot spots.
@mastersthesis{guvendik_smartphone_2014,
	address = {Delft},
	title = {From {Smartphone} to {Futurephone} - {Assessing} the {Environmental} {Impacts} of {Different} {Circular} {Economy} {Scenarios} of a {Smartphone} {Using} {LCA}},
	shorttitle = {From {Smartphone} to {Futurephone}},
	url = {https://repository.tudelft.nl/islandora/object/uuid:13c85c95-cf75-43d2-bb61-ee8cf0acf4ff/datastream/OBJ/download},
	abstract = {The lack of literature on using life cycle assessment (LCA) for increasing environmental performance raises the need for concepts or eco-design tools to be combined with LCA to answer the question of how to strategize and take actions based on LCA results. This study intends to address this need by using mobile phones as a case study and answering the question: How can the environmental performance of the Fairphone be improved?
In order to answer this question, an LCA was performed for the Fairphone to evaluate its current environmental impacts. The boundaries of the system consist of the material extraction, production of the components, assembly of the Fairphone, transportation of the components to the assembly plant, transportation of the Fairphone from the assembly plant to customers, electricity use for charging the phone and recycling of the Fairphone and the battery. The functional unit of the system is defined as “the use of a Fairphone and its battery with an average lifetime (3 years) and with the average daily use time of the Fairphone users”. The data obtained from the bill of materials and dismantling of a Fairphone was used to model the system in CMLCA software using the ecoinvent database. Additional data was collected from the assembly plant and Fraunhofer Institute. Data about the use phase of the life cycle was collected from 823 Fairphone users via an online user questionnaire. Using the ReCiPe 2008 method, the characterization results were calculated for three impact categories: metal depletion, climate change and human toxicity. Fairphone results in 4.0425 kg Fe-eq in metal depletion, 16.404 kg CO2-eq in climate change and 13.961 kg 1,4-DCB-eq in human toxicity. Contribution analysis was applied in order to identify the components and phases with the highest impact within the three categories. Subsequently, ideas are provided to improve the environmental performance of the identified hot spots.},
	language = {en},
	school = {Delft University of Technology},
	author = {Güvendik, Merve},
	month = aug,
	year = {2014}
}

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