Mouser Electronics White Papers
Issue link: https://resources.mouser.com/i/1538287
Mouser Electronics White Paper Circular Economy and Embedded Sustainability ST also promotes a shift from linear (take, make, waste) to circular (reuse, repair, recycle) models in support of a circular economy, where products are kept in circulation through maintenance, reuse, refurbishment, remanufacture, and recycling (Figure 8). 19 Engineers can support this shift by designing for disassembly and modularity, selecting low-carbon fabrication labs, and using recyclable and traceable materials. Figure 8: Comparison of linear and circular models in electronics. (Source: STMicroelectronics) 1 2 / 3 4 5 6 / 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 / 15 / 16 17 / 18 19 / Engineers can further support environmental initiatives by treating sustainability, including carbon levels and life cycle impact, as they would any other hard specification, such as weight, temperature, electromagnetic interference (EMI) levels, and cost. Incorporating LCA data early, during architectural design and BOM selection, and aligning functional specs with power and longevity constraints are additional measures to take. Finally, collaboration with compliance, sourcing, and sustainability teams is crucial to ensuring system-wide alignment and accountability. Conclusion Sustainability has become a core design constraint and a key product differentiator, as the STM32U3 ultra-low-power MCUs illustrate. High-efficiency designs using nontoxic materials and with longer lifespans do not just represent good ethics—they represent better engineering that reduces waste and provides a better experience for the end customer. Today's choices define tomorrow's outcomes, not just in products but in global systems. Sources https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/es025643o https://ewastemonitor.info/the-global-e-waste-monitor-2024 https://www.iea.org/news/growth-in-global-electricity-demand-is-set-to-accelerate-in-the-coming-years-as-power-hungry-sectors-expand https://www.iea.org/reports/electricity-2024/executive-summary https://www.energy.gov/sites/default/files/2022-02/ssl-rd22_urban_display.pdf https://www.eembc.org/coremark https://environment.ec.europa.eu/topics/waste-and-recycling/rohs-directive_en https://environment.ec.europa.eu/topics/waste-and-recycling/waste-electrical-and-electronic-equipment-weee_en https://echa.europa.eu/scip https://echa.europa.eu/hot-topics/perfluoroalkyl-chemicals-pfas https://echa.europa.eu/regulations/reach/understanding-reach https://www.epa.gov/pfas/pfas-explained https://data.europa.eu/en/news-events/news/eus-digital-product-passport-advancing-transparency-and-sustainability https://www.eembc.org/coremark https://www.st.com/content/st_com/en/about https://unfccc.int/event/cop-21 https://sciencebasedtargets.org https://www.cdp.net/en https://www.ellenmacarthurfoundation.org/topics