Dear colleagues,
For those engaged with issues of product durability, reuse and e-waste, you might want to know that Google suspended Project ARA, its effort to create a modular cell phone (see bit.ly/ARA-suspend for a news story). For a thoughtful discussion of the challenges of upgradability in consumer electronics, take a look at this article.
Agrawal, V. V., A. Atasu, and S. Ülkü. 2015. Modular upgradability in consumer electronics: Economic and environmental implications. Journal of Industrial Ecology: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/jiec.12360.
Summary
Modularly upgradable product designs have been advocated to offer environmental and economic advantages; however, they are not commonly used in the consumer electronics industry. In this article, we investigate the economic and environmental benefits and challenges of modular upgradability for consumer electronics. From an economic point of view, we posit that the limited adoption of modular upgradability in consumer electronics is owing to various demand-, technology-, and competition-related issues. From an environmental point of view, we posit that modularly upgradable product designs may not necessarily lead to superior environmental outcomes. To reach meaningful conclusions regarding the environmental benefits of modular upgradability, one needs to understand how product architecture affects demand, production, and consumption patterns, which arise from endogenous consumer and manufacturer choices. It is also important to take into account that modular upgradability may have potentially differentiated effects in the production, consumption, and post-use phases of the lifecycle.
Reid Lifset
Research Scientist, Resident Fellow in Industrial Ecology
Editor-in-chief, Journal of Industrial Ecology
School of Forestry & Environmental Studies
Yale University
195 Prospect St
New Haven, CT 06511
reid.lifset@yale.edu
+1-203-432-6949 (tel)
@JIndEcol