Manufacturing
Manufacturing covers the production of digital equipment, from extraction of raw materials to assembly of the finished device.
Why it dominates
For most digital equipment, manufacturing accounts for the majority of impact over the whole life cycle, well ahead of electricity consumed in use. Semiconductor production is particularly demanding: it requires ultrapure water, high energy input and dozens of metals, several of them present in minute quantities but irreplaceable.
Consequence
Because the impact is incurred once, at the start, the only effective lever is extending the useful life of the device. No optimisation during use recovers what manufacturing has already cost.
This is what makes repairability, availability of spare parts and duration of software support decisive, rather than energy efficiency ratings.
