“I recently asked ChatGPT to create an image that visualizes the emissions generated when a laptop and a smartphone are produced. The idea was inspired by Swedish electric motorcycle company Cake, who years ago made emissions tangible by showing their carbon footprint as a physical volume rather than an abstract number. Their project made a strong impression, and you can see the original image and read more about it here.
The reason this approach is so powerful is simple: our brains struggle with what we can’t see. Carbon emissions are invisible, silent, and abstract. But when we give them physical form, they suddenly become real.
Making the invisible visible
The image shows two transparent cubes. Inside them are a smartphone and a laptop. Surrounding each device is the invisible CO₂e released during production and transport.
Based on a weighted average of our ten best-selling models in 2024, the emissions look like this:
- Smartphone: 51 kg CO₂e – roughly 27 cubic meters of emissions
- Laptop: 203 kg CO₂e – roughly 109 cubic meters of emissions
On paper, numbers like 50 or 200 kilograms of CO₂e rarely move us. They don’t trigger emotion or urgency. But imagine standing next to a cube of air that size. Imagine walking around it. Now imagine those cubes multiplying around everything we buy.
That shift from abstract numbers to physical space changes how we feel. And feeling is often what leads to action.
The impact of keeping devices in use
Every laptop we refurbish, every phone we recover, and every device we keep in circulation helps prevent these cubes from ever forming. Choosing a refurbished device instead of a new one can avoid up to 95% of the emissions associated with production.
The longer we extend product lifespans, the more invisible cubes we remove from the world. Our work may happen quietly, but its climate impact is anything but small.
A different way to think about emissions
What if we could see the emissions behind every object this way? What if the unseen had shape and volume?
When we make emissions visible, we make them understandable. When people understand, they care. And when people care, they act.
Just imagine how many of these cubes we’ve already helped prevent — together.
Warm regards,
Taina Flink, Interim Chief Sustainable Officer at Foxway
Sustainability We are Foxway
