Digital systems and devices depend on natural resources at every life-cycle stage: minerals and fossil fuels for components, water and energy for manufacturing and cooling, and land for infrastructure. This is shared SL and HL content within the environmental context.
How Resource Use Occurs
A life-cycle analysis tracks material and energy inputs from extraction to disposal.
| Stage | Resource use | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| Extraction | Lithium, cobalt, copper, rare-earth elements, silica, and petroleum-based plastics are obtained for batteries, chips, screens, and casings. | Mining can deplete finite resources, disturb ecosystems, consume water, and affect nearby communities. |
| Manufacturing | Factories use electricity, water, chemicals, and refined materials. | This creates impacts far from consumers. |
| Operation | Networks, cloud services, and data centres use electricity and water for cooling. | Renewable energy can reduce some impacts, but growing demand may offset efficiency gains. |
| End of life | Discarded devices contain recoverable metals but can become e-waste. | Poor disposal wastes resources and may expose workers and communities to hazardous substances. |
Example and Evaluation
System: Fairphone designs modular smartphones that can be repaired more easily. Example specifics: The Fairphone 5 was released in 2023, after the 2022 Digital Society coursebook, with replaceable parts and increased use of recycled or more responsibly sourced materials. Impacts and implications: Longer use and repair can reduce demand for replacement devices and raw material extraction. However, production still requires mining, manufacturing energy, and global transport; higher purchase cost may also limit access. Concepts: The example shows systems because design, consumer behaviour, supply chains, and recycling are interdependent. It also raises values and ethics questions about who bears environmental costs.
Exam Technique
For an explain question, link each resource to a specific stage and consequence. For evaluate, weigh benefits against limitations, identify at least two affected groups, and distinguish observed impacts from future implications. Avoid the misconception that digital services are “weightless”; cloud activity relies on physical infrastructure and resource extraction.
