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Tech firms push sustainability on Circular Electronics Day

New initiative urges organisations to consider buying IT kit second hand or repairing it before disposing of it

Lenovo and Swedish VAR Dustin are among 13 organisations encouraging businesses to become more responsible for their electronic waste.

Today marks Circular Electronics Day, which encourages organisations and consumers to adopt a circular approach to the use of their electronic products.

Other organisations that have backed the scheme include global sustainability accreditor TCO Development, the European Environmental Bureau and Swedish ITAD Inrego.

"Buyers have the power to influence the industry to move in a more sustainable direction. By making responsible purchasing decisions, they can have a direct effect on human health, lives, and the environment," said Andreas Rehn, development manager at TCO Development.

The initiative wants organisations and consumers to consider a number of factors before purchasing an IT product, including whether they really need the product, the possibility of renting the product and whether the equipment can be refurbished or repaired.

If the equipment cannot be repaired or rented, the companies suggested the purchaser take life-cycle extension into account when buying new IT kit. This can include buying a product that has been designed for repairs and upgrades with easily available parts and batteries, looking for a sustainability certification that includes circular criteria or compensating the negative e-waste footprint of your new product by recycling one with a similar footprint or purchasing the offsetting as a service.

"Keeping products and materials in use longer is the single most effective thing we can do to lower the negative impact and reduce e-waste," Rehn continued.

"Electronics contain scarce, valuable resources and should never be treated as waste. Instead, materials should be recirculated and used in new products."

Circular Electronics Day comes in the wake of a number of a number of vendors and VARs announcing environmentally-friendly initiatives and sustainability goals.

Last week Microsoft announced that plans to extensively reduce its carbon emissions by over 50 per cent in the next decade, as well as erasing its entire historical carbon footprint by 2050.

Microsoft chief exec Satya Nadella said: "While tech intensity can be a driver of economic growth, the solution is not simply to build technology for technology's sake, it's to ensure that technology is inclusive, trusted and is a creating a sustainable world."

At the World Economic Forum in Davos this week, HPE announced its participation in the Swiss Datacentre Efficiency Label, which aims to decarbonise datacentres in Switzerland and significantly reduce their overall energy consumption, and which aims to become a global certification.

Pilot testers of the label saw energy savings of up to 70 per cent, with half of the ten testers now employing 100 per cent carbon-neutral energy sources.

Earlier this month, Computacenter installed 6,500 solar panels on the roof of its Hatfield operation centre. Group finance director Tony Canophy told CRN that though it's not a financial win, "it's the right thing to do for the business as a whole and for our stakeholders".

Hanna Ljungkvist Nordin, from IVL Swedish Environmental Institute - one of the signators of Circular Electronics Day - said: "When organisations join together, we can drive real change.

"At Circular Electronics Day, we want to inspire and set examples of how consumers and organisations can have a large impact through small, everyday decisions."