Nature Positive Role of the Technology Sector 2025

ACTION 2 Mitigate pollution and pursue circularity 2.1 Design for circularity and repairability –Optimize hardware and process design with circularity in mind, e.g. utilize recycled materials and design with a modular focus to support repairability. –This action begins at the design stage. Recycled metals can be 2-10 times more energy efficient than metals smelted from virgin ore,74 decreasing the nature footprint of a new product. 2.2 Extend equipment lifespan –Prioritize maintenance and replacement of individual components to extend product lifespan.75 –To support end-of-life, companies can also design products to make dismantling, refurbishment and recycling as simple as possible. –Planning for each stage of a process or product lifecycle ensures that resources are used efficiently throughout. This especially means avoiding planned or inadvertent obsolescence through design to minimize earlier replacement. Priority actions for pollution and waste Action Leadership Feasibility Mitigation hierarchy Sub-sector 2.1Optimize hardware and process design with circularity in mind, e.g. utilize recycled materials and design with a modular focus to support repairability.Leading Low Avoid/reduce 2.2Prioritize maintenance and replacement of individual components to extend product lifespan.Foundational High Avoid/reduce 2.3Embed digital circularity practices to minimize data waste and associated resource needs.Aspirational High Avoid/reduce 2.4Develop the infrastructure (e.g. collection systems, repair facilities, consumer awareness) to enable and encourage repair and reuse of consumer electronics.Aspirational Low Avoid/reduce 2.5Develop collection programmes to streamline recycling processes, encourage proper disposal at authorized end destinations and harvest working components of unusable devices for reuse.Leading Low Avoid/reduce 2.6Invest in e-waste recycling infrastructure to expand recovery of valuable metals.Aspirational Low Avoid/reduce 2.7Avoid pollution and contaminants (e.g. wastewater, waste heat, solid waste) impacting the environment by using advanced waste control systems and setting zero-waste-to- landfill standards (e.g. UL2799).Foundational High Avoid/reduce 2.8Rehabilitate areas damaged by pollutants and waste by investing in and supporting land and water restoration efforts.Aspirational High Restore/compensate Semiconductors Data centres Hardware Nature Positive: Role of the Technology Sector 32