Fairphone: Circular economy principles and alternative financing models

A few weeks ago I was introduced to Fairphone. It is a company that produces mobile phones ethically, with the aim to create awareness around the unsustainable practices in electronics products, from sourcing to production, use and disposal. I want to highlight this start-up company as they are addressing aspects of sustainable business that I am interested in, notably the circular economy and sustainable finance. I also think it is interesting to explore a start-up, as I have mostly so far blogged about existing, larger companies.

The key circular economy principles of design for longer use, repair and disassembly were explained in an earlier post. Fairphones are designed for longer use by having easily replaceable batteries – a very simple fix, but that my iPhone does not have. Online guides and a partnership with iFixit, an online repair community, facilitates repair. In terms of disassembly, I think Fairphone…