Getting the CO2e production cost of electronics is tricky.
In order to try and understand and raise awareness a bit, 3rd Party Influence asked 16 Eurorack module manufacturers if they had data about the CO2e emissions cost of producing their modules.
Some answered and said we could publish their responses:
To SOMA Laboratory via instagram:
“Hey Folks - I’m doing a performance (for Earth Day, this Saturday) which involves talking about CO2 emissions - do you have any data about the CO2e emissions cost of producing your modules? I’m a fan of your Lyra8 FX module by the way. :-) Looking forward to hearing from you. cheers, Simon”
Conversation:
Dear Simon, We are deeply committed to protecting the environment. But we think not only about CO2 emissions. We think more comprehensively. This is a list of just some of our actions for eco saving production:
- We use LED lightings in our factory - lower CO2 emission.
- We manage the production and storage space sparingly = lower heat demand for heating = lower CO2 emission.
- We use high quality and high efficiency external power suppliers for Our products - less waste / lower CO2 emission.
- We guarantee the service of all our products. So they are not disposable. Every customer can use it for many years.
Soon we are going to make a section with extended information on our website, where you can learn more about this.
Cheers! Regina
To Joranalogue via instagram
Hey Folks - I’m doing a piece (for Earth Day, this Saturday) which involves talking about CO2 emissions - do you have any data about the CO2e emissions cost of producing your modules? I’m a fan of your modules by the way. :-) Looking forward to hearing from you. cheers, Simon
Conversation:
Hi Simon, thanks for your message! We unfortunately don't have concrete data at this time, although we suspect that we are close to being a carbon neutral operation. -Joran
Hey Joran, thanks for getting back to me. I think we might have met at Superbooth last year.
Could you give me any more information at some point? I’d like to do a post on the subject sometime soon. :-)
We are running on almost 0 electricity or fossil fuel use thanks to solar panels, geothermal heat pump and 2 electric cars. Our factory also runs on solar, and since production is local, shipping is minimised. Elsewhere we use carbon neutral shipping whenever possible. Components are of course sourced worldwide, so it is difficult to obtain data there. Things also go out of our hands as soon as we deliver the modules to our dealers.
We also reuse incoming boxes for our outgoing logistics and are moving towards fully reusable / recyclable packaging this year. And of course, the modules are designed with a long life in mind, far beyond typical consumer products.