In an era when the business of consciousness is no longer optional, the tech industry is getting its act together. By 2025, phone and laptop manufacturers are retooling their practices and products while making unprecedented commitments to sustainability. It’s not only about corporate responsibility, but about all the pressure that’s coming from consumers demanding eco technology and about more and more strict environmental regulations across the globe.
The Push for Sustainable Materials
The widespread adoption of sustainable materials has one of the biggest impacts on the landscape of technology. Now products and packages have transitioned from leading manufacturers to increasingly use recycled plastics in the product casings and packaging. For example, rising star in the industry, TechGreen has vowed to have all its products made from 100% recycled or renewable materials by the end of 2025.
Rare earths, crucial components in many devices, are also being tackled by the industry but are mined at huge cost to the environment. New discoveries in material science have led to environmentally sound alternatives. In next generation devices, QuantumAlloy, a new compound developed by MIT scientists promises to cut reliance on rare earth metals by up to 40 percent.
Sustainability efforts have given packaging focus. With Apple removing plastic wrap from its iPhone entirely and Samsung using biodegradable mushroom-based packaging on its Galaxy series, these moves have gone some way to encouraging the industry to find alternatives.
Energy Efficiency and Battery Life
The drive for sustainability extends beyond materials to the very heart of device performance: energy efficiency and battery life. Industry giants Intel and AMD latest processors feature power consumption reduction of up to 30 percent vs their 2023 contemporaries, without compromising on performance.
Commensurate with the improvements in battery technology, the cost to store batteries and most importantly the cost to recharge them are steadily decreasing. Long promised and now finally reaching mass production in 2025, solid state batteries have higher energy density and longer life. Not only do these batteries prolong time between charges, they also increase the lifetime of the device dramatically, minimizing e-waste.
The addition of solar charging capabilities is perhaps the most exciting development. In the early stages now, phones and laptops with photocells stitched on top of their surfaces are starting to hit the market promising perpetual, low level charging outdoors.
Repairability and Longevity
The ‘right to repair’ movement is finally beginning to pay off, with the major manufacturers backing modular designs that make it easier to repair and upgrade. These used to be something I treasured for years: easily replaceable parts, such as the battery or the screen, help push out the useful life of a machine well beyond the capabilities of your typical laptop, which can up to six years.
The dramatic extension has also been seen in the software support. Other companies have taken the mission statement, however, with Google promising seven years of Android updates for its Pixel devices and Microsoft promising 10 years of Windows support on devices meeting certain hardware standards. The extended support lengthens the time period of being secure and functional on a device, shortening the lifecycle of premature replacement of a device.
They’ve proliferated because of manufacturer supported repair programs. Since 2022, Apple’s Self Service Repair program has gone global, allowing users to buy, own and repair parts and tools and repair manuals for a range of Apple devices.
Circular Economy Initiatives
The idea of a circular economy has become increasingly not just theory but practice in the tech industry. The trade-in and buyback programs that include manufacturers offering cash back or trade in of old devices for recycling or refurbishment are standard.
Companies such as Renewed Tech within the refurbished device market offer the same or very similar warranties for their pre owned devices as for new products. The result of this digital shift has been that premium technology is available at a lower cost and that has also greatly reduced e-waste.
Manufacturers have increasingly become responsible for e-waste management. Tech companies team up with recycling firms with a speciality in junk and make sure end of life devices are properly dismantled and the parts with value removed to be recycled, as well as all hazardous components disposed of safely.
Looking Ahead
While we are progressing our way into 2025, it is evident that sustainability is now not an eco-friendly niche concern any more; it’s a central piece of the pitch for any tech startup. And the trends we’re seeing, from the use of sustainable materials and energy efficiency to repairability and what we call circular economy, are changing the way we produce, consume and dispose of technology.
While some of these innovations need to be scaled and at least, need to be rolled out globally for sustainable practices, the progress is immeasurable. Manufacturers who are leaders of this taking sustainability seriously will likely reap benefits in the form of market share as consumers keep sustainability in of their consideration when purchasing products.
It isn’t just about faster processors and more intense displays, it’s about devices that exist in harmony with our environment, that evolve with our environment. That’s the future of technology. For manufacturers, consumers and the planet, the bet on sustainability looks to be a bet that will pay dividends into the rest of 2025 and beyond.
