When Raspberry Pi floated on the London Stock Exchange on 11th June 2024, it was awarded the LSE’s Green Economy Mark. This recognises that not only are the Pi Foundation’s products efficient but they actively displace other less sustainable technologies.
Just some of the activities that help add to these are eliminating plastic packaging where possible, shrinking packaging sizes and working on efficient production methods. One is the new intrusive reflow soldering process for the Pi 5. This both saves energy and reduces the physical manufacturing footprint at the factory, while increasing throughput. While some might scoff at green credentials, these literally contribute to lower costs, increasing efficiency.
Now that the Foundation is a public limited company, it’s created a Sustainability Committee to oversee activities like these. Roger Thornton, the Pi’s principal hardware engineer, stated: “Raspberry Pi aims to be a leader in sustainable practices within the technology sector while maintaining our core focus on providing affordable and accessible technology for all.”
The Foundation continues to follow sustainable practices.
Part of the new drive is to measure its carbon footprint across what are known as Scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions. Scope 1 are the direct emissions from sources owned or controlled by a company, while Scope 2 are indirect emissions from generating the energy that the company purchases. Scope 3 encompasses all the other indirect emissions in a company’s value chain, from raw material production to employee commutes.