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Impact Deep Dive
What does our social and environmental impact look like?
What is the aim of The E-Waste Column?
The E-Waste Column and The E-Waste Newsletter educate the public about e-waste, transition minerals, and critical raw materials. It is a core aim of our resources to educate the general public on the just transition, the "social license to operate" (SLO), as well as legal and policy developments in this space.
Does The E-Waste Column have a social mission?
The E-Waste Column and The E-Waste Newsletter both aim to create more space for the voices of historically underrecognized groups in the corporate sustainability, energy, and mining sectors.
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Both our publications emphasize educating readers on matters related to a just transition, social impact, and social justice. We cover social, labor, gender, Indigenous Peoples’ rights, and other human rights issues in the context of the energy transition, which many other educational resources and news outlets still largely overlook.
Does The E-Waste Learning Hub have a social mission?
The goal behind The E-Waste Learning Hub is to empower businesses and civil society to use electronics and modern technology more responsibly.
We believe tech can be a catalyst for large-scale positive societal change, so long as we are willing to engage in critical thinking and inclusive discourses on its use. Through The E-Waste Learning Hub, we aim to encourage society at large to explore how to design, produce, use, and engage with tech in more ethical and sustainable ways. Amongst others, our learning modules aim to help our readers and users to explore how tech can be used to protect our planet or to contribute to the upholding of social and labor rights globally.
Through the educational resources we create, we ultimately hope to play a part in strengthening our democracies by sparking respectful and meaningful discussions between citizens and different actors.
Does The E-Waste Column have an environmental mission?
By educating the public on critical raw materials and the just transition, we aim to help improve the general understanding and acceptance towards the energy transition and the circular economy. We believe that people make better decisions when they are well-informed, feel engaged, and are included in decision-making processes. In line with this, our aim is to provide education that empowers our users to build a more sustainable and inclusive future.
Why is education about e-waste and electronics circularity important?
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E-waste is the fastest-growing solid waste stream globally. The production of e-waste is causes environmental damages, creates greenhouse gas emissions, and leads to a plurality of social, labour, and human rights issues.
At The E-Waste Column, we are working to change the current narrative around e-waste through our education. We welcome you to be a part of this change by engaging with our educational resources or by supporting our work.
How does The E-Waste Column enable
the circular economy and the energy transition?
The educational foundation that underlines and supports all other actions needed for the circular economy and the energy transition is still far too often overlooked and disregarded.
At The E-Waste Column, we therefore strive to create the education needed to allow different market actors – from consumers to businesses and policymakers – to understand the circular economy, the energy transition, and what is at stake. Our hope is that this will then enable these actors to participate in a well-informed manner in creating the solutions needed for a circular and sustainable future. You can read more about the rationale behind our work here.
How does The E-Waste Column advance
the Sustainable Development Goals?
Transitioning over to a circular economy and implementing responsible practices in mining, electronics and energy production, as well as e-waste recycling all play an important role in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals.
Our work at The E-Waste Column contributes to accelerating progress on all 17 of the Sustainable Development Goals. You can read how here. In line with this, we are also a stakeholder in UNIDO's Global Electronics Management (GEM) programme.
How does The E-Waste Column contribute
to closing the gender gap?
The E-Waste Column actively works to advance gender justice and to close the gender gap in the mining, electronics, energy, and waste management sectors by speaking up, raising awareness, and providing education on best practices around gender-based issues in the operations and supply chains of these industries.
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We also tell the stories of stories of female pioneers and trailblazers through our "Female Scientists" series, to inspire the next generation of female innovators and changemakers.
The E-Waste Column was created by Palsa & Pulk. Palsa & Pulk is a fully female-founded, female-funded, female-owned, and female-led company. The social enterprise also came to turn a profit with a fully female team.
Why are the writers at The E-Waste Column mostly women?
We ask talented writers and skilled sustainability professionals to write for us. Many of our writers are highly educated women or come from other underrepresented groups.
How does The E-Waste Column democratize knowledge?
The publications and educational resources of The E-Waste Column democratize knowledge on raw materials, e-waste, the circular economy, and the energy transition by making complex topics easily understandable and accessible to laypeople and citizens at large.
Has The E-Waste Column won any awards?
In December 2024, The E-Waste Column was featured in The Bloom’s "30 Under 30 Social Impact".
What is the aim of "The 3.5 Percent"?
"The 3.5 Percent" is a storytelling based component of The E-Waste Learning Hub and the TransitionED app. It is focused on telling the stories of ordinary people stepping into their power as citizens, volunteers, activists, researchers, entrepreneurs, and business owners.
By telling the personal stories of people still pushing for positive social and environmental change, the hope is to inspire others to see that small acts matter and that change is still possible. You can access the stories for free here.
Why does The E-Waste Learning Hub have specific modules focused on robotics, artificial intelligence, machine learning, and automation?
Since it was founded in 2022, The E-Waste Column has had the overarching mission to explore and teach about ways that technology can be designed, manufactured, and used in manners that are more sustainable, responsible, ethical, and inclusive than under the current status quo.
Robotics, artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning, and automation are currently transforming the way raw materials and e-waste are managed, as well as our world more broadly. We therefore see it as our responsibility to also educate the general public on these topics. If you would like to learn more, you can browse through the contents of the short learning modules here.
How does The E-Waste Column share a high level of expertise with the general public and laypeople?
Our founder, Christine Nikander, has a knack for explaining topics related to critical raw materials and the just transition in plain and simple language. She wants everyone to be able to understand what is going on in this space and what it means for them personally.
Christine is an environmental lawyer, who is specialized in waste and circularity laws. She began doing research into e-waste, conflict minerals, and circularity in the summer of 2015. Christine draws upon this expertise to write about recent developments in law, policy, and business in our column and newsletter.
How does The E-Waste Column cater to the needs of the Global South?​
​Our column, newsletter, and e-learning platform cover topics that play a key role for sustainable development in the Global South. Therewith, our content is also directly relevant to our readers from the Global South.
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Many countries globally source their metals, minerals, and critical raw materials from — and export their e-waste to — the Global South. This also means that the opportunity of countries in the Global South to develop sustainably is strongly impacted by what happens in metal and mineral life cycles. By making our column and newsletter freely accessible, we hope to cater to the need for high quality and reliable information on these topics in the Global South.​
What topics has The E-Waste Column covered so far?
​Our column and newsletter touch upon a range of topics. These include ESG, sustainable development, circular economy, EU law and policymaking, corporate social responsibility, the transition to renewable energy, the EU Green Deal, supply chain due diligence and auditing, human environmental rights, business and human rights, climate law, and corporate sustainability.
You can explore all the past topics covered by The E-Waste Column in The E-Waste Database.
How is The E-Waste Column user-centered?​
Our column, newsletter, and e-learning platform each actively accept topic wishes and suggestions from readers, users, and the general public.
You are most welcome to drop us a line with suggestions for topics that you would like to see us cover in future columns or newsletters via our contact form or by e-mail.
What is the reach of the column and the newsletter?
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Our column has over 2700 followers on LinkedIn, Instagram, and via our website. Our founder, Christine Nikander, also has over 23 500 followers on LinkedIn, where she posts our weekly columns.
Our newsletter has over 2500 subscribers on LinkedIn (here and here), Substack, and our blog.
Is The E-Waste Column an EdTech solution?
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The educational solutions and learning tools provided by The E-Waste Column, The E-Waste Newsletter, the E-Waste Learning Hub, and The E-Waste Database take the form of a digital news outlet and e-learning platform. That means we offer EdTech solutions.
In contrast with most EdTech companies today, we however do not use artificial intelligence (AI) to create or generate our educational resources. There are four main reasons behind this choice: (1) AI-generated content is often biased against historically underrecognized groups and it is particularly the voices and concerns of these groups that we want to amplify through our educational resources; (2) We seek to fund writers and creators from historically underrecognized groups rather than use AI-generated content (for which the input contents' original creators are not being rightfully paid); (3) We seek to respect the content, intellectual property, and copyright of other writers and creators and AI currently still fails to do this sufficiently; (4) We want our educational resources to be copyrightable and AI-generated content is not copyrightable (because it is not the work of a human creator and is generated without any human creative contribution). Through the choice to not use AI-generated content, we aim to take a more ethical and just approach to creating EdTech solutions.
How scalable is The E-Waste Column as a solution?
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As a digital news outlet and e-learning platform, the educational solutions and learning tools provided by The E-Waste Column, The E-Waste Newsletter, and The E-Waste Learning Hub are highly scalable by nature. We currently reach around 47 000 users annually with our content, and our reach can be increased far beyond this.
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Given that our column and newsletter are accessible without a fee or charge to users, the audience we reach is not limited to users' ability or willingness to pay for their continuing education.
Does The E-Waste Column have the potential to
reduce the carbon footprints of its users?
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The energy sector is responsible for about 40% of global CO2 emissions. Yet, it is estimated that up to 20% of consumers' energy use can be saved through behavioral changes.
Similarly, the electronics industry is estimated to have emitted 580 million metric tons of CO2 in 2020 — and is therewith amongst the top eight polluting sectors collectively responsible for more than half of the world’s carbon footprint. (Read more about e-waste's impact on the climate here.) Yet, by increasing the lifespan of electronic devices by 50% to 100% — for example through repair, refurbishment, and reuse, it is possible to mitigate up to half of the total greenhouse gas emissions created by the electronics industry.
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Our column, newsletter, and e-learning platform have the potential to raise awareness and inspire our users to take a more conscious approach to their electronics and energy use, the production and disposal of e-waste, and to the energy transition more broadly. This, in turn, has the potential to reduce the carbon footprints of our users.
Does The E-Waste Column have the potential to reduce the environmental and ecological footprints of its users?
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Our column, newsletter, and e-learning platform aim to educate our users about their electronics and energy use, the production and disposal of e-waste, and the energy transition more broadly. If this education can motivate and bring about behavioral changes, it also has the potential to indirectly reduce the environmental and ecological footprints of our users.
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In this context, it is worth noting that the production of non-renewable energy has a significant negative impact on the environment. By transitioning over to renewable energy sources, it is possible to develop and meet our energy needs in a more sustainable manner — especially if the reuse and circularity of resources is at the heart of this transition for both companies and consumers.
The production of electronics consumes energy and water, is largely dependent on the mining of finite raw materials, and emits toxic chemicals. More specifically, the mining for metal, minerals, and raw materials used in electronics can cause habitat destruction, soil and water contamination, and greenhouse gas emissions. Additionally, the incorrect disposal of e-waste often results in toxic chemicals being leached into the ground and surrounding freshwater. By using electronics responsibly and reducing e-waste, it is however possible to reduce and mitigate some of these adverse effects. (You can read about practical ways to do this here.)
Does The E-Waste Learning Hub have the potential
to strength democratic dialogue?
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Our e-learning platform aims to (a) create space for different views to be respectfully shared, heard, and discussed; (b) explain different viable options to the public; (c) encourage dialogue and debate; and (d) invite widespread societal engagement on topics around raw materials, the circular economy, the energy transition, or AI and robotics. We are looking to democratize these discourses, as we firmly believe that well-informed citizens can find common grounds and reach the best outcomes for the common good.
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Through the content we create, we aim to help users understand views they may not share, while teaching them to respect the humanity of those they disagree with. That said, our educational resources do not pretend things are okay when they are not. Instead, they aim to (a) foster critical debate, (b) encourage users to have the difficult conversations needed for meaningful change, and (c) help find better ways forward for society as a whole.