Digitalization and natural resources

The report focuses on the mineral natural resources needed for digitalization. The use of digital applications and digital devices continues to grow and increasing amounts of information are being converted into a digital format. Prior research on digitalization in the context of sustainability has focused mainly on energy consumption and emissions. However, with the increasing demand for ICT hardware in numerous applications in modern society, the raw materials requirement of digital devices has become a crucial sustainability issue. Therefore, this report delves deeper into the topic of the raw materials consumption of digitalization.

We focus on the following challenges and topics:
• Sources, production, availability and sustainability of digitalization raw materials
• ICT sector’s raw materials consumption, with a specific focus on selected key
end-user devices: smartphones and smart TVs
• Key aspects of the ICT value chain
• Key ICT consumer and end-user aspects
• Possible solutions to support the sustainability of digital devices throughout their life cycle
• Key policy aspects and recommendations