The International Energy Agency estimates that the Information & Communications Technology (ICT) sector consumes about 10% of worldwide energy, half of which comes from device production alone. Overall, ICT accounts for 2-3% of global CO2 emissions, which is on a par with the aviation industry; if nothing changes, by 2050 this will rise to over 30%. When looking at emissions over the lifespan of devices, the vast majority of CO2 (85+%) comes from production, not usage.

Moving to a circular economy can reduce the disproportionate energy consumption and CO2 emissions associated with hardware manufacturing. Hardware and software are inextricably linked, and a Free Software license disrupts the produce-use-dispose linear model of hardware and enable the shift to a reduce-reuse-recycle circular model. In this talk I provide an overview of the environmental harm driven by both hardware and software and how FOSS is well-positioned to address the issues. I will link the inherent values that come with a Free & Open Source Software license to sustainable software design. Finally, I will present the various ways that Free Software can prevent the unnecessary production of new devices, whether by adapting the software to hardware one already owns, or recycling existing software to support the newest hardware being produced.