Circular IT Topic

Four Circular IT Topics in 2024

Circularity is vital to reduce the carbon footprint of the world’s 34 billion – and growing – pieces of IT equipment, which accounts for 4% of global emissions. That’s more or less the same as the entire global aviation industry.

What can you do to make an impact? How can you make a difference as an organisation that wants to do good? The low-hanging fruit for CIOs is circular IT. We have four topics that can set the wheel in motion:

Circular IT topics

Proof over Promises

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Circular IT over Refurbished

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Bio-Based over Virgin Materials

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Extended Lifecycle Management

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1. Proof over Promises

On 5 January 2023, the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) entered force. From 2025, the EU rules require larger organisations to publish regular reports on the social and environmental risks they face and how their activities impact people and the environment.

No more planning tree as a fig leaf for sustainable IT. You have to report on the carbon footprint of your data centres, public cloud use and the digital workspace. To quote Elvis Presley: “A little less conversation, a little more action, please!” Circular IT group will provide their customers with reporting data and the KPI’s on carbon avoidance.

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Proof over Promises

2. Circular IT over Refurbished

We have to make “refurbished” fashionable by showing that a reconditioned laptop is a more logical and conscious choice. In fashion, it’s called vintage, and in the car industry, it’s “pre-owned”. So why not upgrade the whole concept of second-life digital equipment and use “circular IT” for this purpose?

Why buy a new laptop every three years? Around 1,200 kilos of mined metal-containing earth and almost 200,000 litres of water are needed to produce one new one. That doesn’t add up because the real lifespan is at least six years. There will be a mix: software teams will have newer laptops than the HR team, and some employees will even request a circular device. Let’s Gucci-up the digital workplace an let’s make circular IT hardware popular.

Hopefully, the CEO will show off with a circular slick laptop.
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circular over refurbished

3. Bio-Based over Virgin Materials

There is a shift towards using Post-Consumer Recycled materials (PCR) in modern laptops. The aim is to reduce the usage of fossil-based plastics and precious metals. Post-consumer recycled (PCR) are components and products from everyday recycled materials, like aluminium, paper, and plastic bottles.

HP’s Elite Dragonfly was the world’s first notebook with ocean-bound plastics. Purchasing laptops requires a new mindset focused on the total carbon footprint (cradle to grave) and the extended lifecycle, resulting in a lower total cost of ownership (TCO).
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HP Dragon Fly

4. Extended Lifecycle Management over Lifecycle Management

Lifecycle management (LCM) in IT is the process of identifying, tracking, and managing the stages in the life of an organisation’s software and hardware. Especially hardware has a significant impact on the carbon footprint. Modern devices like laptops and phones can last six years, even when companies have a three-year cutoff rule for productivity reasons.

We believe in the next step of LCM: Extended Lifecycle Management, focusing on the first, second and third life of a laptop, tablet, networking or storage equipment inside and outside an organisation. It’s a triple win: environmental, economic and social return.
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Extended Lifecycle Management over Lifecycle Management

Our promise

1.     Environmental benefits by extending the life of laptops, servers, and network equipment towards a circular economy and carbon footprint reduction.

2.     Societal benefits by providing second-life laptops to for example refugees, disadvantaged students, children and elderly.

3.     Economic benefits by cutting the cost of IT capex investments and reducing the cost of IT ownership by rethinking, reusing and repairing consciously without performance degradation.

Why Circular IT?
Trailblazer

Relevant articles

news EcoVadis Platinum Medal

Platinum EcoVadis Medal for NEG-ITSolutions

At Circular IT Group, we're celebrating a shining moment: our very own NEG-ITSolutions has clinched the EcoVadis platinum award for sustainability. Since pioneering the path in 1993, they've not just walked but blazed a trail in circular IT solutions. This prestigious recognition validates our group's relentless pursuit of excellence in sustainability, cementing our status among the top 1% of trailblazers in the circular IT landscape.

Read more about Platinum EcoVadis Medal for NEG-ITSolutions
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