The IT industry is an environmental disaster — it is time to act responsibly

Let's get the facts straight. We, the well-to-do in the Western world, go to developing countries to rob them of their minerals and materials so that we can build our own IT infrastructure. We do great things with IT, which makes other industries greener. But at the same time, we have completely forgotten that our IT industry itself is really environmentally burdensome.

During my career, especially in developing countries, I have seen the dark side of IT. I travelled around developing countries for a decade, mainly in Africa, Asia, and Latin America, where I worked on many IT projects with various organisations. There I saw with my own eyes what this world is all about.

We go there to rob them of their minerals and metals, from which our IT is built. We take their materials, use them for electronics, and finally dump them back in developing countries as hazardous waste. As waste, they damage the soil and waterways, thereby harming the health of local populations.

And the mining industry is really harsh to watch, given what it does to society. Here in the Western world, we have developed a disposable culture, where we use devices for only a few years, after which we sell them to charity. And in the countries where these devices are rarely used, there is no recycling whatsoever.

Small children burn our used devices

In other words, these devices end up in waterways. And the worst part is that young people, usually children, burn those devices in landfills and try to find some material to recover. In a way, we take their materials away, bring them here to our disposable culture, use them for a while, and then take the environmental and health problems back to the developing world.

It makes no sense. I believe that most people don't think about this, and my job is to bring this unsustainable equation to everyone's attention.

Our responsibility in this IT has been completely forgotten. We see our devices, for example, our laptops and smartphones, as just cool things. And we want new stuff all the time. Here in the West, the three-year leasing model has brainwashed us because, in our mindset, those devices no longer work after a certain period.

Yes, those devices work because they want to be sold. In other words, they always have that second life cycle. But we should use it through its entire life cycle here, then properly recycle it.

Together, we can stop the IT industry's environmental disaster

Environmental and human rights values, highlighting these and implementing new, more sustainable processes, have been absent from the IT world for too long.

My previous career, IT projects in developing countries, was the biggest awakening of my life. There, I realised that we are creating an environmental disaster and human rights violations. And this has to change. Someone has to do it.

And when that experience was so strong for me, I saw no other option than to change the world. That is why I founded SwanIT in 2017 to show that demanding IT solutions and processes can be delivered sustainably. And better than ever!

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