Grey is the new green

Secondhand should not be second-best in the eco-friendly race

Wolthuis: Secondhand is not grey but green, perhaps greener than new

OEMs do their best to give the secondary market for networking equipment a bad name.

Fearful of the impact that suppliers of used and refurbished goods will have on their market and margins, they would have everyone believe that it is full of wide boys and sharp practices.

Many call it grey marketing, even though that term really only applies to the unauthorised sale of new products under deceptive circumstances.

Yet in our view buying, refurbishing and reselling end-of-life networking equipment is more about green than grey.

IT manufacturers are investing a lot of marketing energy and resources convincing businesses to buy the latest more
energy-efficient kit.

Economic realities Green IT in the form of energy efficiency has quickly become a business strategy in its own right as companies seek ways to cut costs in the face of soaring energy prices.

But there is more to a green IT strategy than simply reducing your power consumption. Many eco-friendly practices and green products involve additional, often hidden, expenses.

A 2008 study by the Corporate IT Forum, which was announced at the Green IT Summit in London, found 69 per cent of IT managers viewed cost efficiency as
critical to implementing greener policies.

That is an important distinction for many companies in the UK, especially if they are facing tougher economic realities and tighter budget constraints.

Network equipment, particularly if it is enterprise class, has a longer average
lifespan than the typical PC or monitor.

Encouraging customers to buy new IT equipment before an existing model has reached its end-of-life brings the product to a premature end and leads to an increase in the amount of electronic waste (e-waste).

It is easy to overlook that the net effect of introducing energy-saving products at one end produces extra e-waste at the other.

Few in the industry stop to consider the flawed logic of the standard corporate-speak on green IT when tonnes of still-functioning gear are being retired unnecessarily early.

Cash in on unwanted kit The trade of buying and selling pre-owned networking gear is perfectly respectable. It creates a viable secondary market for items that would otherwise end up as e-waste.

Most businesses we talk to are relieved to hear that they can sell their unneeded but still operational network hardware, or buy cut-price, tested, reliable used
equipment to support their growing network infrastructure.

We estimate that through our own company’s efforts alone, we save more
than 500 tonnes of potential waste from ending up in landfill every year.

In our view, recovery and reuse is just as green and important as saving energy. By choosing one of the larger, more experienced secondary market organisations, businesses can be confident that their gear has been tested and is ready for redeployment.

Reliability is key Testing procedures in the secondary market have to be extremely rigorous, a fact of which many customers may or may not be aware. Customers need to know that the equipment is reliable.

We simply cannot afford to tolerate counterfeit goods or the businesses that deal in them. This is another reason why the shadow cast by the grey-market tag is starting to become rather irksome.

With so much talk of global economic downturn in recent months we have seen a significant increase in the number of companies turning to the secondary market to buy and sell network equipment.

Businesses are not fools. They realise that the only way to be truly green is to make sure that unwanted equipment ends up in someone else’s IT shop or in the hands of an environmentally safe recycler.

For equipment that has no market value, resellers arrange for environmentally responsible disposal. Nothing ends up in the community tip.

In this cynical, over-hyped world where businesses are falling over each other to offer green-washed products and services, the secondary market probably has more of a genuine claim to green than many.

Selling and buying second-hand IT equipment via the secondary market not only helps save valuable resources and keep unnecessary waste out of landfill, but also and helps companies to stretch their hard-hit budgets that bit further.

Robert Wolthuis is EMEA managing director at NHR