Building a Truly Sustainable Future for Electronics

The term “sustainability” is everywhere. But when it comes to the inner workings of modern electronics especially small devices and IoT systems how much has really changed?

At Jiva Materials, we believe true sustainability starts at the materials level. The global shift to smart, connected devices demands not only innovation but urgent environmental responsibility. That’s why we’re proud to be part of the SELECT project, a groundbreaking initiative bringing together some of the most forward-thinking technology partners in Europe to build a new foundation for sustainable electronics.

The Problem: Billions of Devices, Billions of Batteries

By 2030, the world is expected to have over 40 billion connected IoT devices. These nodes whether they’re used in smart homes, industrial sensors, or retail are typically powered by disposable or rechargeable batteries. That’s an unsustainable model. Not only are these batteries resource-intensive and toxic, but replacing and maintaining them in large-scale systems is costly, wasteful, and environmentally damaging.

While the industry talks about sustainability, most electronics still rely on polluting materials, including epoxy-based PCBs and heavy metal-laden batteries. At scale, this creates a staggering environmental burden.

The Solution: Designing for Circularity and Energy Independence

Sustainability can’t be an afterthought. It must be designed into electronics from the start. That’s the ethos behind SELECT – a Eurostars-funded collaboration focused on replacing traditional power sources and polluting materials with energy harvesting and circular materials.

Here’s how SELECT reimagines electronics:

• No batteries: Devices are powered by ambient energy light, radio waves, or motion.

• Ultra-low power design: Using ONiO.zero, a batteryless RISC-V microcontroller that thrives on nanowatts.

• Sustainable storage: Bio-based supercapacitors from Ligna Energy replace traditional lithium or cobalt-based batteries.

• Circular materials: Jiva’s Soluboard® replaces conventional FR-4 PCBs, offering a fully recyclable, biodegradable alternative that dissolves in hot water and has a 67% lower carbon footprint.

Soluboard®: The Backbone of Circular Electronics

At the heart of Jiva’s contribution to SELECT is Soluboard®, our patented recyclable PCB substrate. Traditional glass-fibre PCBs contribute significantly to e-waste and carbon emissions. Soluboard® changes that offering electronics designers a substrate that’s durable in use, yet dissolvable at end-of-life for easy component recovery and safe disposal.

By integrating Soluboard® into the SELECT platform, we’re proving that sustainable electronics don’t need to compromise on performance and they can actively contribute to decarbonisation across industries.

SELECT: A Collaborative Platform for Scalable Impact

The SELECT consortium is a collaboration between six forward-thinking organisations, each contributing a specialised technology or application to build a platform for truly sustainable electronics. ONiO, the project lead, is a Norwegian fabless semiconductor company pioneering energy-autonomous microcontrollers. Their flagship product, ONiO.zero, is a revolutionary batteryless RISC-V chip with integrated power management and RF communication, capable of running entirely on harvested energy – eliminating the need for batteries in countless low-power applications. Epishine, based in Sweden, contributes its award-winning printed organic photovoltaic (OPV) cells, which are optimised for harvesting indoor light. These thin, flexible, and non-toxic solar cells are made with minimal material usage and are among the most sustainable power sources available for small electronics. From the energy storage side, Ligna Energy, also Swedish, offers supercapacitors made from forest-based biomaterials using eco-friendly, roll-to-roll manufacturing processes. These bio-based storage devices are lightweight, ultra-thin, and free from rare metals, providing a sustainable alternative to conventional lithium-ion batteries.

Representing the materials innovation behind the electronics themselves, Jiva Materials, a UK-based company, supplies Soluboard®, a recyclable and biodegradable PCB substrate made from natural fibres. Soluboard® is engineered to dissolve in hot water at end-of-life, enabling safe recovery of components and reducing the environmental impact of traditional FR-4 PCBs, which are among the most polluting parts of electronic waste. Pricer, headquartered in Sweden, is a global leader in Electronic Shelf Labels (ESLs) and in-store digital solutions. As a key end-user partner, Pricer is integrating SELECT’s batteryless, energy-harvesting components into its next-generation ESLs to demonstrate the feasibility of sustainable retail infrastructure at scale. Finally, 4MOD Technology, based in France, brings extensive expertise in consumer IoT and smart remote controls. Their role is to develop SELECT-enabled remote control units, showcasing how the platform can be adopted in high-volume consumer electronics with improved performance, lower environmental impact, and reduced maintenance.

Together, these six partners are not only advancing their own technologies – they’re combining them into a cohesive, low-impact electronics platform that redefines what’s possible in connected devices. SELECT is more than a project; it’s a blueprint for how collaboration across sectors can unlock scalable, circular, and energy-autonomous innovation in electronics.

The project is focused on real-world applications with immediate potential for mass deployment such as electronic shelf labels (ESLs) and remote controls. By developing fully integrated reference designs, SELECT lays the groundwork for a new generation of sustainable, batteryless electronic products.

Environmental Impact: Numbers That Matter

If SELECT technologies were adopted across just ESL and remote control markets (estimated at 700 million units/year), we could save:

• >150,000 tonnes CO₂e annually

• Equivalent to taking 100,000 petrol cars off the road

• Massive reduction in toxic battery waste

• Significant gains in recyclability and reduced electronic component loss

And that’s only scratching the surface. The SELECT platform can scale to address use cases in smart buildings, industrial IoT, wearables, trackers, and beyond.

A Platform Built for the Future

At Jiva, we believe sustainability must be:

• Designed in, not bolted on

• Validated by lifecycle analysis, not marketing

• Collaborative, not siloed

SELECT is more than a demonstration – it’s a blueprint for industry-wide change. Through deep integration, smart power management, and circular materials, we’re proving that electronics can work harder and tread lighter.

Final Thought: Powering Tomorrow Responsibly

The tools for more sustainable electronics already exist. SELECT brings them together into a coherent, ready-to-deploy platform that redefines what’s possible in electronics design.

Jiva Materials is proud to be shaping this shift—one Soluboard® at a time.

Want to learn more about Soluboard® or explore partnership opportunities?
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