Switching to sustainable laptops could reduce UK CO2 emissions by nine million tons

Sustainable IT specialist, Circular Computing has calculated that the UK could save £7.7 billion over the next nine years by buying remanufactured laptops instead of brand new devices. The move would also see carbon emissions reductions of nine million tons and 5.4 trillion litres less water usage - 10 percent of the volume of the North Sea - over the same period.

If all businesses in the UK elected to move to remanufactured devices, the reduction in emissions by 2030 - when progress against the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) will be reviewed - would be equivalent to taking 193,002 cars off of the roads for a year.

Circular Computing, which specialises in extending the usable life of laptops by replacing parts and returning them to almost new performance, is encouraging businesses to look at remanufactured laptops as a more cost-effective and environmentally-friendly alternative to buying brand new devices.

Because remanufactured laptops reuse much of the original device, the emissions, water use, and resources needing to be mined are significantly reduced versus net new equipment - they are also up to 40 percent cheaper.

While early efforts to reduce carbon emissions focused on organisations’ own operations and energy use, businesses are now turning their attention to the environmental impact of their supply chains. Emissions found here - classified as Scope 3 emissions by the Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Protocol  - are expected to see significant reductions as efforts to transition to a more sustainable way of living and working ramp up.

With research showing that we are falling far short of the emissions reductions targets needed to reach net zero emissions by 2050, it is clear that more needs to be done to achieve a sustainable UK economy. Circular Computing believes that bringing IT into the circular economy, and in doing so reducing Scope 3 emissions, has a key role to play here.

Steve Haskew, Head of Sustainability and Social Leadership at Circular Computing, said: “At Circular Computing, we realised that significant quantities of laptops were being bought by businesses on increasingly arbitrary, often 3 year buying cycles. Devices weren’t seeing significant performance improvements between cycles, and serviceable laptops were being discarded unnecessarily. Indeed, every day some 160,000 laptops are disposed of in the EU alone, creating a worsening e-waste crisis.

“By acquiring that discarded stock and taking it through a thorough 100-step remanufacturing process, we’re able to produce laptops that deliver 97 percent of their original performance and provide businesses with reliable, enterprise-grade machines at significant cost reductions. These laptops haven’t had to be manufactured from scratch, with many materials reused, so they are much more environmentally friendly than buying new devices. There are seismic sustainability savings.

“I’d encourage all organisations looking to reduce their environmental impact to interrogate their IT procurement and see if they can make it more sustainable, because IT shouldn’t cost the earth.”

Circular Computing works with a number of major distributors and reseller partners to help organisations across the globe adopt more sustainable IT.