Titelbild: makeITfair

Germanwatch will erreichen, dass Elektronikfirmen faire und nachhaltige IT-Geräte herstellen – vom Design der Geräte über den Abbau der Rohstoffe, von der Herstellung bis zur Entsorgung des Elektroschrotts. Eine lange Nutzung von Geräten ist ein wichtiges Ziel. Dafür brauchen wir sowohl Vorreiterinitiativen als auch politische Rahmensetzung.

Aktuelles zum Thema

Blogpost
As part of the European Green Deal, the EU has committed to making European product markets more sustainable, with circularity playing a key role. To achieve this goal, the EU is planning to introduce a Digital Product Passport for a wide range of products. In the future, the Digital Product Pass could foster new market opportunities for business models that strengthen the circular economy. To do so, it must be designed in such a way that it is particularly empowering for actors in the fields of product life cycle extension.
News
The book ‘Shaping Digital Transformation for a Sustainable Society’ shows how society can become digitally sustainable. It contains 28 contributions from 68 authors hailing from civil society, research, and practical experience, discussing challenges of digitalisation and how digital politics can and must be designed for sustainabilty.
Publication
Make it a game-changer for circular economy!

The Digital Product Passport (DPP) is comparable to a comprehensive digital index card or a “digital CV” that the EU seeks to introduce for a wide range of products. It is intended to provide information needed, for example, for more efficient repair and recycling of products. We believe that the DPP has a significant potential to pave the way towards a more circular economy as it can address the information deficit along a circular value chain that often impeded circularity.

News

The European Union is in the process of redefining the ecodesign criteria for products in several legislative proposals. Together with 37 European organisations and companies, Germanwatch publishes an open letter calling on legislators in the EU to make use of the historic chance by introducing the universal right to install any software on any device, including full access to hardware.

Publication
The energy transition requires a restructuring of the energy system and, as a result of decentralisation, also increasing digitalisation to integrate all actors and make them more flexible. However, digitalisation can be shaped and should happen under ecological and social premises. In this paper we present the challenges and evince possible solutions.
Publication
Discussion of Mandatory and Voluntary Approaches in Regard to Coverage, Transparency and Credibility
This paper analyses the current governance framework concerning mineral supply chains of electronic devices. This is about ten years after leading IT companies began in 2007 to fund research to investigate the impact of mineral sourcing for IT devices, which established a connection between their products and human rights abuses.
Publication
Open Letter to Jean-Claude Juncker, President of the European Commission
Coolproducts, a coalition of environmental NGOs, with the support of over 30 stakeholders across Europe and beyond (including Germanwatch), urge Jean-Claude Juncker, President of the European Commission, to regulate smartphones by 2021 with requirements that will make smartphones more energy efficient and more durable, repairable and recyclable.
News
Together with 126 civil society organzations we are calling on the Council to listen not only to the European Parliament, but also to the many activists, investors, civil society, and citizens that have called for a strong and effective EU law. At a minimum, this means a regulation that covers companies that import into the EU minerals in their raw form as well as companies that import products containing these minerals.
News
Public letter by Germanwatch and 58 other civil society organisations to the countries of the Group of Seven
The 2015 G7 Summit at Schloss Elmau was ground-breaking in that G7 leaders for the first time discussed such supply chain responsibility. They pledged to promote “responsible supply chains”, and strongly supported the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs). The G7 leaders also stressed the need to increase transparency, the identification and prevention of human rights risks, and the strengthening of grievance mechanisms to promote better working conditions, and urged the private sector to implement human rights due diligence. These commitments were made under the leadership of Japan and Germany, as current and preceding G7 chair.
News
GoodElectronics Network and International Campaign for Responsible Technology (ICRT) demand less use of chemicals and more rights in production
Working in IT-production can entail lethal consequences: workers are often exposed to hazardous chemicals and suffer from a higher cancer risk. Therefore, Germanwatch supports a challenge presented to the electronic industry to reduce the use of hazardous chemicals and to guarantee a better protection of workers and environment.

Publikationen und Bildungsmaterialien

Netzwerke

Good Electronics ist ein internationales zivilgesellschaftliches Netzwerk zu Menschenrechten und nachhaltiger Produktion in der Elektronikindustrie. Weitere Informationen inkl. Newsletter siehe www.goodelectronics.org