A–B. Health and Safety; Technological Development, Impacts, and Careers · Technology Fundamentals, Safety and Connections

Technology, the Environment and the Economy: Local and Global Impacts

B2.2About 70 minutes

Learning goals

I can trace a product's life cycle and identify environmental and economic impacts at each stage.
I can tell local impacts from global impacts.
I can explain how technological innovations change the labour market.

Words to know

life cycle
All the stages of a product, from raw materials to the end of its life.

circular economy
An economy that keeps materials in use through reuse, repair and recycling.

supply chain
The network of companies and transport that turns raw materials into products and delivers them.

labour market
The supply of workers and the jobs available for them.

automation
Using machines and computer control to do tasks with little human help.

upskilling
Learning new skills for your current field or job.

reskilling
Training for a different job.

carbon footprint
The total greenhouse gases produced by a product, activity or person.

Hook: where did your hoodie come from?

Check the label on a piece of clothing you are wearing. It might say it was made in Bangladesh, Vietnam or China. The cotton may have been grown in another country, dyed in a third, sewn in a fourth, shipped across an ocean and trucked to a store near you. After you are done with it, it may be donated, reused as rags, or end up in a landfill.

Every step affects the environment and the economy, both locally (where you live, or where the factory is) and globally (the whole planet). In this lesson you will learn to trace those impacts, including impacts on the labour market: the jobs people do.

Thinking in life cycles

To understand a technology's environmental and economic impacts, follow its life cycle:

Raw materials: mining metals, logging trees, growing crops, drilling for oil (plastics are made mostly from oil and natural gas).
Manufacturing: turning raw materials into parts and products in factories, which uses energy and water and creates waste.
Transport: moving materials and products by ship, train, truck and plane.
Use: the energy, water, fuel, repairs and maintenance a product needs while it is used.
End of life: landfill or incineration, or better, reuse, repair, remanufacturing and recycling.

A circular economy tries to loop materials back into new products instead of throwing them away.

A product's life cycle. Each stage has environmental and economic impacts. The dashed arrow shows materials looping back in a circular economy.

	Local impacts	Global impacts
Environment	noise, dust or water use near a factory or mine; litter; local air quality; land cleared for a plant	greenhouse gas emissions and climate change; ocean plastic; resources taken from many countries
Economy	jobs at a local plant; business for local suppliers, restaurants and shops; taxes that pay for services	global trade and supply chains; prices set by world markets; jobs moving between countries

Local and global impacts of a technology. One product can have impacts in all four cells.

Technology and the labour market

The labour market is the supply of workers and the jobs available for them. New technologies change it in three ways:

Some jobs shrink or disappear. Automated machines took over many repetitive tasks on assembly lines. Self-checkouts reduced some cashier work.
Many jobs change. Bank tellers spend less time counting cash (ATMs do that) and more time helping customers with advice. Auto technicians now use computer diagnostics as well as wrenches.
New jobs appear. Someone has to design, build, install, program, maintain and repair new technology: robot technicians, electric-vehicle technicians, solar installers, cybersecurity analysts, drone operators.

In Ontario, the auto industry is shifting toward electric vehicles. New EV and battery plants have been announced in places such as Windsor and St. Thomas, creating demand for electricians, millwrights, technicians and engineers. Meanwhile, workers whose tasks are automated may need upskilling (learning new skills for their field) or reskilling (training for a different job). That is why the skills you build in this course, and the habit of lifelong learning, matter so much.

Automation removes some tasks and creates others. The total effect depends on whether workers can learn the new skills.

Worked example

Let's trace an electric vehicle in Ontario

Identify local and global environmental and economic impacts across the life cycle of an electric vehicle (EV) driven in Ontario.

Raw materials (global and local): batteries need minerals such as lithium, nickel, cobalt and graphite. Mining them has environmental impacts (land, water, energy) wherever they are mined. Some could come from Northern Ontario, for example the proposed Ring of Fire mining region; First Nations in that region hold a range of views and have rights that must be respected in decisions about it.
Manufacturing (local economy): battery and EV plants in Ontario create construction and manufacturing jobs and business for local suppliers. Making a battery uses a lot of energy, so an EV starts life with a larger carbon footprint than a gas car.
Use (local and global environment): an EV has no tailpipe emissions, which improves local air quality. Most of Ontario's electricity comes from sources that release little carbon dioxide (mainly nuclear and hydroelectric), so over its life an EV driven here usually produces less greenhouse gas than a gas car.
Use (economy and labour): drivers spend less on fuel and some maintenance; gas stations and engine repair work may shrink, while charger installation and EV repair jobs grow.
End of life: battery recycling can recover valuable metals, creating a new industry, if batteries are collected properly.

EVs shift impacts: cleaner local air and lower lifetime emissions in Ontario, new jobs in batteries and charging, but significant mining and manufacturing impacts that must be managed responsibly.

Just for fun

Ontario's Blue Box recycling program began as a pilot project in Kitchener in 1981. That is ten years before the first website went online. Sorting cans: older than the web.

Hands-on activity

Trace a product's journey

You need: an everyday product with a label (clothing, a small appliance, a toy, a food package), a map or an adult-approved online map, paper, a pencil.

Find where the product was made ("Made in..."). Find the main materials on the label or packaging.
Draw the product's life cycle using the five stages. For each stage, add one environmental impact and one economic impact.
Use a map to estimate the distance from the country where it was made to your town (straight-line distance is fine). Write how it probably travelled (ship, train, truck).
Sort your impacts into local and global.
Suggest two changes that would reduce the product's environmental impact (for example, buying used, repairing, choosing a product made closer to home, recycling it properly). For each change, name one economic effect.

Your turn

Name the five stages of a product's life cycle.

What is a circular economy?

Give one local and one global environmental impact of a large factory.

What is the labour market?

Name two jobs created by electric vehicles.

What is the difference between upskilling and reskilling?

More practice: warm-up

Which life-cycle stage includes mining?

Plastics are made mostly from what?

Name one Ontario city where an EV battery plant has been announced.

Is a job at a local plant a local or global economic impact?

Give one example of a job that changed because of technology.

More practice: on your own

Explain why an EV can have a bigger carbon footprint than a gas car when new, but a smaller one over its life in Ontario.

A town gets a new warehouse with many automated robots. Describe likely local economic impacts, both positive and negative.

Why can buying a cheap product made far away still have hidden costs?

How can repairing a product help both the environment and the local economy?

Explain how one technology can affect the labour market in two different countries.

Challenge

Choose a technology (for example, solar panels, smartphones, fast fashion). Trace its life cycle and identify at least one local and one global impact at three different stages.

Some people say automation will leave many people without work; others say it will create more jobs than it removes. Using examples, explain both views and give your own reasoned opinion.

Design a plan for a school to cut the environmental impact of its computer equipment across the life cycle, and describe one economic effect of each step.

Check your understanding

Quiz

Which stage of a product's life cycle includes recycling?

A circular economy aims to...

Which is a global environmental impact?

Automation on assembly lines usually...

Learning new skills for your current job is called...

Why can an EV driven in Ontario have lower lifetime greenhouse gas emissions than a gas car?

For parents and teachers

This lesson connects technology to the economy and jobs your teen will enter. Talk about how technology has changed your own work: what tasks disappeared, which ones are new, what training you needed.

A common misconception is that a product's impact is only what happens while it is used; push your teen to think about mining, factories, shipping and disposal too. For the activity, an online map's "measure distance" tool gives a straight-line estimate; supervise any web searching.