Recycling more than a message

There is still a growing channel opportunity in the need to avoid IT waste, says Fleur Doidge

One colleague stated in the office recently that IT channel companies and business people are not interested in green technology because there is little in the way of profit in it for them.

Can this really be true, when all governments are mandating increasingly green policies and regulations, when major vendors including IBM and HP have put their weight behind it, and when organisations everywhere are under increasing pressure to become more efficient and reduce cost as well as waste? In fact, many industry players do believe that more can and should be done to go green, if their and their customers' businesses are to survive long term.

Infrastructure provider and repairs specialist Comtek has called on all technology providers, along with the government, to reduce e-waste. Repairing rather than replacing hardware not only helps massively reduce the amount of carbon emitted into the environment but can boost profits, according to the company's chief executive, Askar Sheibani [pictured].

"We genuinely believe in sustainability, because we believe that by extending the life of these complex IT products we are reducing our [the UK's] dependence on manufacturing," he said.

IT manufacturing today is primarily an activity that happens abroad. So encouraging the development of services and support locally that reduces the need to buy brand new product from overseas actually promotes UK business success, he suggested.

Sheibani noted that some environmental tech-related issues - like the scarcity of rare-earth elements to manufacture IT - are coming to a head already. Some 97 per cent of rare-earth elements are mined in China. However, in 2012 China plans to ban most exports of rare-earth elements.

"Meanwhile, the manufacture of one new computer and monitor uses 240kg of fossil fuels, 22kg of chemicals and 1,500 litres of water," added Sheibani. All of these items are becoming increasingly costly.

There is little or no margin on selling new hardware anyway, as the channel well knows.

High-end skills to keep UK working
On top of that, fostering repair and support of IT kit -- much of which can be refurbished and recycled to give many more useful years of service -- develops and expands the high-end skills that will keep the UK both working and profitable. Sheibani said that Comtek has put its money where its mouth is here, hiring numbers of skilled Nortel technicians cast adrift when the comms giant entered Chapter 11 status in 2009.

"It's a no-brainer," he said. "Some staff being thrown out worked on really high-end technological products. Some are legacy products, and some [of what we repair] are very high-end, for example GSM, products."

And Comtek, he added, is a profitable company that is finding significant demand for its services.

Sheibani was speaking at a Comtek sustainability seminar hosted at the House of Commons. The event was focused on informing business leaders, heads of public sector organisations and policy makers about ways to reduce e-waste and encourage sustainable business practices across the board. Comtek wants policy makers to make it easier for organisations to take a greener approach to their ICT hardware, and Sheibani aims to take the message to the European Parliament next.

Rob Jones, ICT sector lead at the Carbon Trust [pictured], a government-sponsored not-for-profit organisation set up to support greener business, also spoke at the seminar. He said that work is being done to foster incentives and legislation that will ensure customers must focus on a greener ICT approach.

"Our mission is to accelerate the move to low-carbon economy. We help organisations to reduce emissions now. We look at the full life cycle [of products]," Jones said. "For example, for desktop and PCs, and monitors, most of the carbon is embodied in the manufacturing process. So it makes sense to sweat your assets and continue to use that asset. Yet for servers, the carbon is in the using of them. So it can make more sense to swap it out at end-of-life for a new low-powered box.

"Perhaps 98 per cent of the carbon [emitted by] or in a server is in the use phase."

Jones said those figures were from a study by Carnegie Mellon. The biggest issue in IT is really about how do businesses go about minimising carbon across the entire life cycle of the technology. The Carbon Trust is putting its weight behind the mantra ‘reduce, reuse, recycle, dispose' - meaning that organisations must focus on reducing their IT inventory as much as possible, then reusing as much as possible, then recycling anything they cannot reuse, and only disposing of product when the first three actions have been exhausted.

Technology providers must help
Of course, both public and private sector organisations will require specialised help from technology providers to maximise their application of the three Rs, as well as help at the end in making good disposal choices.

Miriam Kennet, chief executive of lobby group the Green Economics Institute, said that organisations simply need to take a more holistic view of what is economical and efficient and what is not. This approach is now being mandated and supported by the United Nations. She hinted that macro-economics -- as difficult as it can be to do -- is the only way to greater overall productivity and minimum waste. And greener IT is an important part of it.

"IT accounts for about two per cent of all global carbon emissions. And I can tell you that it will, if it hasn't already, overtake the aeroplane industry [in terms of emissions]," she said. "And Gartner says that green IT is the optimal use of information."

Gary Griffiths [pictured], head of sustainability at Computacenter remarketing arm RDC, agreed. He said that forces are now coming together to insist on compliance with standards and regulations that go beyond the European Union's Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) directive - which is of course primarily about the disposal end of the life cycle -- to tackle inefficient use of IT in the first place.

He also said that vendors could perhaps be forced to retain responsibility for their products for the entire life cycle - instead of simply passing that responsibility and cost off to the end user or consumer of the technology.

"We are talking about now a new standard for reuse - PAS 141. This is a new British standard," Griffiths said.

"It will reassure users that equipment is being reused, and that when it is being reused it is safe and in good working order."

The seminar also featured a keynote from Catalina McGregor [pictured]UN green IT liaison officer to the OECD and EC. Greener IT is a serious issue and progress towards achieving it is being made - so no one can afford to ignore the issue, she said.

[asset_library_tag 2096,CRN Focus: Guide to green IT
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