How Much Green is Green Technology?
There is a concept we have been frequently encountering in recent years both in media and politics: Green technology. From solar panels to electric vehicles, from carbon capture systems to energy-efficient structures, this wide technology range promises an eco-friendly future. Because the crisis we face is a great one: Climate change.
Increasing temperatures, droughts, floods, forest fires are no exceptions anymore. Production and consumption system based on fossil fuels destroys the nature in an irreversible manner. And “green solutions” step in exactly at this point. Solar or wind power instead of fossil fuels, electric vehicles instead of internal combustion engines... They are promising at the first glance.
However, we must ask certain questions: How sustainable are these technologies really? What kind of an impact do their production, utilization and disposal processes have on nature? Are “green” labeled products really eco-friendly or is this only a marketing strategy?
In this blog post, we will look at the background of green technologies, analyze invisible costs and go after the question of “is an eco-friendly technology really possible?”
The expression of “green technology” sounds like an incredibly positive one. It appears to be a description of solutions that are beneficial to nature, rather than harmful; in fact, they contribute to its healing. However, the content of this notion is, most of the time, unclear. Therefore, it would be beneficial to make it clear first.
Green technology, in general, involves technologies that use natural resources more efficiently, reduce waste, decrease carbon emissions, and produce without harming the environment. Here are some of the best-known examples:
• Solar and wind power systems
• Electric vehicles and battery technologies
• Carbon capture and storage (CCS) systems
• Energy efficient buildings and smart city solutions
• Waste water treatment and recycling technologies
However, there are a few considerations here. A technology can be labeled as “green” only because it reduces carbon emissions. But this label does not guarantee that the production process, supply chain or waste management after utilization do not harm the environment.
A solar panel, for example, can produce zero emissions during utilization. But the mining activities conducted to extract the rare elements used during production can destroy forests or pollute water resources. Similarly, an electric vehicle does not emit carbon in the traffic, but the cost of lithium extracted for its battery is remarkably high for the nature.
Therefore, the notion of “green technology” does not provide an adequate environmental guarantee by itself. It is necessary to look at all the stages of the life cycle of the technology: Raw material extraction, production, utilization, maintenance, and disposal.
Although green technologies ensure less carbon emissions in direct utilization, their production processes usually involve significant costs for the environment and human health. And this reminds us of an important question: Should we look only at the outputs of a technology or consider inputs and production conditions as well to understand whether it is really green?
Raw materials, especially required for technologies such as electric vehicle batteries, solar panels, and wind turbines, are obtained mostly through mining. Prominent ones among these are: Lithium, Cobalt, and Nickel.
These minerals are usually extracted from regions with environmental and social vulnerabilities. For example, utilization of child labor at the cobalt mines in the Democratic Kongo Republic has been a controversial subject for a long time. Similarly, considerable amounts of underground water is used to extract lithium in countries such as Bolivia and Chili. This threatens local people’s access to water and disrupts ecosystem’s balance. Moreover, extracting these minerals does not only harm the environment, but it also deepens social inequalities. Local people do not usually receive economic benefits from these processes, on the contrary, they experience health problems and habitat loss.
In other words, maybe a solar panel does not harm nature directly. But the rare elements used in the production of that panel may have caused ecological and social destruction in another geography. Therefore, it is necessary to look at the whole of the production chain in order to understand whether the products labeled as “green” are eco-friendly or not.
Almost every moment of our daily lives is digital. We surf on social media, use artificial intelligence, upload data on cloud systems, watch videos, and give voice commands. However, this invisible digital world is based on a very physical and energy-dense infrastructure.
There are data centers at the very heart of this system which makes all these digital activities possible. These centers are the backbone of the Internet. However, they require uninterrupted energy to operate. Moreover, considerable amounts of electricity are consumed not only to operate these, but also for cooling systems.
Click here to check out our blog post titled Green Data Centers: How Tech Companies Reduce Their Carbon Footprint?
As the interest of consumers for eco-friendly products increased, the companies also started to present their brands as “green” in order to meet this demand. However, this does not always indicate a true transformation. On the contrary, it remains only as a marketing strategy most of the time: Greenwashing.
Click here to check out our blog post titled What is Greenwashing, and How to Spot It?
Greenwashing refers to a situation in which a product, a service or a company is presented as eco-friendly, but these claims remain unfounded. For example: A company can paint an eco-friendly picture by making the packaging of the product “recyclable,” but the production process of those products can still be based on fossil fuels. Or electric vehicle brands can use the motto of “zero emission” but the battery production chains can inflict serious harm on the environment.
Greenwashing makes it difficult for the consumers to make the right decision. It also prevents public from focusing on the real problems. Therefore, it is particularly important to question which kind of facts are hidden behind the green labels.
We have seen that green technologies in their current form have serious environmental and social costs. This, however, does not mean that we have to completely reject these technologies. The real issue here is about how and for whom we develop technologies. A more fair, transparent, and sustainable technology policy is possible.
First of all, production chains should be made transparent. Which material is extracted from where and how? The answers to these questions should be disclosed to the public. This transparency enables consumers to make conscious decisions and forces the companies to act more responsibly.
Secondly, green transformation should be conducted from the perspective of global justice. Transition to green technology should not only help rich countries to reach their carbon neutrality goals, but they should also contribute to social and economic welfare in poor countries. Otherwise, this transformation can turn into a new form of exploitation.
And finally, policy makers should redefine their relations with technological companies. Today, the big tech firms effect millions of people with their eco-friendly image but also leave significant amounts of carbon footprint. Confronting this contradiction and intervening with regulatory mechanisms can no longer be postponed.