Alternative Materials Reduce the CO₂ Footprint by Up to 95 Percent

Electronics Design Alternative Materials Reduce the CO₂ Footprint by Up to 95 Percent

2026-08-19 Source: Press release | Translated by AI 1 min Reading Time

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Can critical raw materials and CO₂ emissions in electronics development be reduced? The EU project SUSTRONICS aims to provide an answer. Using the example of medical technology wearables, it demonstrates how printed electronics, alternative substrates, and early lifecycle analyses can make hardware design more sustainable.

Electrodes made from paper and copper paste deliver comparable signal quality to the established gold standard. They perform significantly better in all environmental impact analyses.(Image: Screentec) — Electrodes made from paper and copper paste deliver comparable signal quality to the established gold standard. They perform significantly better in all environmental impact analyses.
(Image: Screentec)

In addition to electrical parameters, space constraints, and costs, the ecological footprint of electronic assemblies is gaining more focus in electronics design. This trend is driven by strict EU regulations. How sustainability can already be embedded in development and design is being studied by the large EU project SUSTRONICS, which ran until May 2026.

At the center of the consortium, which includes the Fraunhofer IZM, Infineon Austria, Philips, and numerous other industry and research partners, are resource-saving materials, printed electronics, and energy-efficient manufacturing processes.

Medical Technology as an Example

To identify opportunities for optimization, researchers at Fraunhofer IZM rely on scientifically grounded lifecycle analyses. The entire product lifecycle, from raw material extraction to production to end-of-life (EoL), is examined for so-called hotspots.

A concrete example from the project: In glucose monitoring patches, the life cycle assessment revealed that the electrodes were almost solely responsible for the environmental impact. Through close collaboration with the development team, project partner Onalabs was able to integrate an optical sensor and reduce the CO₂ footprint of the entire monitoring patch by around 65%.

Away from PET and Silver

The results for smart wound patches demonstrate that material selection directly impacts the CO₂ balance. By replacing conventional material combinations of PET and silver with alternative substrates like Thinstar, conductive carbon inks, and recycled materials, the environmental impact of the flexible electronic modules could be reduced by up to 95%.

The project provides practical methods and life cycle assessment data that companies can use in the future as a guide for more environmentally conscious power and electronics design. This transforms sustainability from a purely administrative requirement into a measurable design parameter in hardware development.

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Date: 08.12.2025

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