The most sustainable website ever. Probably.
We partnered with Infomaniak to host our website in a way that helps cut the planet a break. Infomaniak’s hosting utilizes 40% solar energy and 60% hydroelectricity to power its servers. Plus, their Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE) rating is 1.09. The closer to “1” a PUE score is, the closer it is to energy neutral, so we’re looking pretty dang good.
We also designed this website to use minimal resources, utilizing two universal fonts, a pared-down navigation system to condense the number of pages to just 3, and kept all image sizes under 300kb. We even built our own plug-in to remove unnecessary dynamic behaviors on the page, so it could be hosted as a static website with a much lower energy usage.
Even Windows 2000 could run this bad boy.
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Impact Report 2024
Welcome to the refurbished revolution
Our 2024 Impact Report examines the environmental impact of our favorite pocket devices—the good, the bad, and the Back Market.
There’s no denying technology has changed
the way we live.
Nowadays, it’s standard practice to order a quattro formaggi pizza at the tap of a screen (extra anchovies please) or to pull up the latest 4K HD triple-lens camera with a single swipe.
How smart is your smartphone?
Producing a new smartphone from scratch guzzles heaps of natural resources and spits out greenhouse gasses in the process.
How to build a smartphone (sources here):
Dig up 588 lbs of raw materials
Using invasive techniques like mining, blasting, and drilling.
Use 23,500 gallons of fresh water
That’s enough to get your recommended 8 glasses a day for 112 years.
Emit 185 lbs of CO2e
The equivalent of over 372 miles of driving.
Toss aside 7.05 oz of e-waste
That’s (probably) heavier than your smartphone.
The digital industry is predicted to represent
14%
of total global emissions
by 2040
(that’s more than the entire aviation industry.)
But there’s a better way.
Compared to a brand new device, a refurbished smartphone uses
-
91%
Less raw materials
-
86%
Less water
-
92%
Less greenhouse gasses
-
89% Less e-waste
If half the population opted for a refurbished device instead of buying brand new it would
Avoid the emissions
of more than
US tons of CO2e every year
Leave Mother Earth
with a lot more of her natural resources intact
This year marks
10 years of Back Market.
Since 2014 we’ve helped avoid 1.5 million US tons of carbon equivalent (CO2e) from entering our atmosphere by offering people a reliable alternative to buying
resource-guzzling new devices.
Read more about our journey and the difference we’re making in our 2024 Impact Report.