The results are in - see how QDOS’s Life Cycle Assessment stacks up against industry standards for phone case emissions

As you know, QDOS is committed to delivering premium protection for your tech whilst being transparent about our environmental impacts.

With that being said, we are thrilled to share our product Life Cycle Assessments results, analysed and reviewed by Carbon Footprint Ltd to ISO 14067 and Greenhouse gas (GHG) protocol standards.

As the chart below shows, a phone case's carbon footprint depends heavily on the materials used.

So, where does QDOS stand in comparison?

Our most widely used materials include post-consumer recycled polycarbonate (PC) and post-consumer Thermoplastic Polyurethane (TPU). These materials are central to our flagship product line, the HYBRID case collection.

According to Carbon Footprint Ltd’s independent Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), conducted in alignment with ISO 14067 and Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Protocol Product Life Cycle Accounting and Reporting Standards, our HYBRID cases demonstrate a notably lower environmental impact when compared to standard plastic-based cases available in the market.

Industry benchmark:

The carbon footprint of traditional plastic-based phone cases, typically made from virgin thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU) or polycarbonate (PC), is estimated to range between 1.5 and 3 kg CO₂e per unit. This estimate is based on industry-compliant Life Cycle Assessments (LCAs), including raw material extraction, manufacturing, packaging, transportation, and disposal.

Peer-reviewed LCA research consistently shows that phone cases or similar consumer products made from virgin plastics (such as TPU, PC, HDPE, and PET) have substantially higher environmental impacts compared to those made from pre-consumer or post-consumer recycled plastics. In particular, using recycled plastics can reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 25 to 75 percent and requires only 12 to 17 percent of the energy needed to produce virgin materials (Bataineh et al., 2020; Wäger & Hischier, 2015; Zhang et al., 2017). These findings support the benchmark range by illustrating how virgin plastic production, which is common in standard phone case manufacturing, is significantly more carbon intensive than recycled alternatives.

Where QDOS stands:

Thanks to the integration of recycled materials, efficient production practices, and design optimised for material reuse, our HYBRID cases show a carbon footprint ranging from just 0.25 – 1.85 kg CO₂e per case. That’s significantly below the industry average, meaning our products outperform the standard by up to 83% in terms of greenhouse gas emissions for plastic cases.

So, how big is the difference? Choosing a case made from recycled materials can reduce emissions by more than 80% compared to traditional virgin plastics. It’s a simple switch that makes a big impact.

What happens next…

Our LCA results show that some of our materials and processes are already well below the industry benchmark in terms of carbon footprint, but there's still work to do. We'll use these insights to identify areas for improvement, prioritise lower-impact materials, and continue to explore more efficient manufacturing and shipping methods. This is just the start of a longer journey to reduce our products' environmental impact across their entire lifecycle.