Have you ever thought about where your iPhone goes after you throw it away or return it to the Apple Store? What about where your all electronics come from? Did you know your devices have probably been to more countries around the world than you will ever go in a lifetime?

Every semester the SGA Sustainability Committee hosts a Sustainability Forum that consists of a keynote speaker and panel of experts to address relevant issues and topics pertaining to environmental sustainability. This semester's forum will focus on life-cycle assessments of electronics and environmentally conscious industrial processes — themed the “Life Cycle of an iPhone.”

Topics of discussion will include extraction locations for raw materials, the sustainability of transporting and packaging of electronic materials, planned obsolescence, e-waste distribution between developed and developing nations, and innovative ways to process electronic waste, especially biological methods. 

Speakers and panelists at the event: 

• Dr. Valerie Thomas (ISYE, PUBP) 
• Mr. Wilson Kieffer (President of eWaste ePlanet)
• Mr. Steve Ekin (Georgia Department of Administrative Services) 
• Dr. Atalay Atasu (Business)
• Dr. Marc Weissburg (BIO)