Sustainability starts before the product reaches your desk

Sustainability is shaped long before a product reaches the customer. In this op-ed, Trust International ESG manager Arjen Steenbergen argues that meaningful progress comes from the design and manufacturing decisions from the outset

Every year, there are headlines about sustainability. But what do businesses change on a day-to-day basis? Those decisions may never grab the headlines, but together they're the ones that will make the biggest difference.

Awareness is valuable because they encourage us to pause and reflect. Yet, meaningful progress is rarely achieved through a single announcement, breakthrough technology, or ambitious target. It comes from hundreds of small decisions made consistently over time.

In the consumer electronics industry, many of those decisions happen long before a customer ever opens the box. Research across the electronics sector shows that more than 80% of a typical headset's climate footprint is created during manufacturing.

That includes sourcing raw materials, producing components, assembly and transport. By the time a customer opens the box, most of the environmental impact has already happened.

When people think about the environmental impact of technology products, they often focus on what happens once the product is in their hands. How much energy does it consume? Can it be recycled? How long will it last?

These are important questions, but they only tell part of the story and miss a key part of the equation.

Sustainability and tech: it’s a lifecycle issue

In other words, sustainability is not simply an end-of-life issue. It is a lifecycle issue.

The biggest opportunities often come much earlier, when products are first designed. The materials we choose, the packaging we use and the way products are manufactured all shape a product's environmental impact for years to come.

These decisions may seem small on their own, but together they have a significant effect. Research from TU Delft found that circular product design could reduce demand for primary raw materials used in electronics by up to 80%. It is a reminder that sustainability is often designed into a product long before it reaches the shelf. That shift in thinking has never been more important.

The United Nations estimates global e-waste will exceed 80 million tonnes by 2030, yet electronic products continue to be consumed faster than they are repaired, reused or recycled.

Addressing this challenge requires more than encouraging consumers to recycle. Manufacturers have an equally important responsibility to reduce environmental impact from the outset.

At Trust, that has meant increasing the use of recycled materials across our product range while reducing plastic and foam packaging by 25% and 32% respectively.

They're incremental changes, but that's often what meaningful sustainability looks like: improving hundreds of decisions that customers may never notice individually, but which collectively reduce environmental impact.

These improvements may not always be visible to consumers, but their environmental impact can be substantial. They're practical changes that reduce waste and lower emissions without compromising product quality or performance.

Encouragingly, this way of thinking is becoming more common across the industry.

The need for measurable progress to drive sustainability

New European legislation is placing greater emphasis on designing products that last longer, use fewer resources and create less waste. Sustainability is becoming something that's considered at the beginning of product development, not after a product has already been designed.

But changing products is only half the challenge.

Businesses also need to show that the changes they talk about are actually happening. Customers, retailers, investors and regulators increasingly expect environmental claims to be backed by evidence rather than good intentions.

That's why independent certifications and third-party assessments matter.

They provide credibility and consistency, helping organisations benchmark progress, identify where they can improve and demonstrate that environmental claims are being measured against recognised standards rather than internal assumptions.

That is where the next phase of sustainability begins. It's less about announcing bigger ambitions and more about demonstrating measurable progress.

Businesses will increasingly be judged not by the sustainability targets they announce, but by the progress they can demonstrate.

The organisations that stand out won't necessarily be those making the boldest promises. They'll be the ones quietly improving products, reducing waste and being transparent about the results.