{"id":105963,"date":"2024-03-01T09:18:06","date_gmt":"2024-03-01T09:18:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/eu\/?p=105963"},"modified":"2024-03-11T10:41:00","modified_gmt":"2024-03-11T10:41:00","slug":"can-you-really-go-net-zero-without-sustainable-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/eu\/2024\/03\/01\/can-you-really-go-net-zero-without-sustainable-it\/","title":{"rendered":"Can you really go net zero without sustainable IT?\u00a0\u202f\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Keeping up with the Joneses concept has been around for many years \u2013 people want new and untouched \u2013 but its effects on business structures is, to some extent, responsible for an unsustainable and linear product economy. Steve Haskew, Head of Sustainability and Social Leadership at Circular Computing, explains how to achieve net zero with remanufacturing at the heart of the solution.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n

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Steve Haskew, Head of Sustainability and Social Leadership, Circular Computing<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

Achieving net zero is now a top priority for a growing number of UK businesses, but the road to carbon neutrality is littered with obstacles, difficult decisions and the odd wrong turn. It\u2019s not easy knowing what to do, and I have a lot of sympathy for business leaders who are trying to do the right thing while juggling countless competing demands for their time, intellect and investment.\u202f\u202f\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Depending on the sector, achieving net zero might be relatively easy, or seemingly impossible. Some businesses will require only small operational or behavioural changes, while others will need to go through significant upheaval, investment and strategic realignment before they even get close.\u202f\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Whichever end of that scale a business might be on, one thing is certain, if it uses IT in any way shape or form, it\u2019s going to be extremely difficult to achieve net zero without addressing the footprint of its IT infrastructure. The good news is that it\u2019s usually one of the easiest areas to address.\u202f\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Time to roll up your sleeves\u202f<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

We live in the age of the net zero commitment.\u00a0Almost two-thirds\u00a0of the UK\u2019s largest companies have pledged to reach net zero by 2050, and 87 of the 100 largest listed companies have signed up to the BRC Roadmap to reach net zero by 2040.\u202fYet despite this pledge,\u00a0only 29% of UK businesses\u00a0have a strategy in place to reach their net zero goal. Two-in-five (42%) business leaders say they feel overwhelmed by the steps they need to take to reach that goal. Fewer still have plans to reduce their Scope 3 emissions.\u202f\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While it\u2019s naturally great that business leaders are facing up to the environmental challenges facing our society, there are signs that many, if not most, will fail to cross the net zero finish line in time. There\u2019s a sense that too many people in leadership positions don\u2019t know what to do and don\u2019t know where to start.\u202f\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Business leaders in this position, searching the horizon for a quick win that makes commercial as well as environmental sense should start by looking carefully at their IT estate. \u202f\u202f\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Can businesses achieve net zero without sustainable IT?\u202f\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Strictly speaking, yes \u2013 it is possible to achieve net zero while still maintaining an environmentally expensive IT infrastructure, but only if a company invests in a carbon offsetting programme to balance out its emissions. It\u2019s technically possible, but in a world of readily available renewable energy, and circular programmes to cut the carbon cost of acquiring hardware, it\u2019s hard to imagine a world in which it would make sense to do so.\u202f\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s take the humble laptop as an example.\u00a0Three-in-five\u00a0UK workers use a laptop or desktop device at work; each one of those new laptops costs 331kg of CO2, uses 190,000 litres of water, and requires 1,200kg of earth and rock to be mined all before it\u2019s taken out of the box. Now considering that by 2028, the number of laptops sold in the UK alone is expected to hit 4.2 million units; that\u2019s some 1.4 million metric tons of CO2 pumped into the atmosphere each year from the purchase of new devices.\u202f\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If someone were to offset that number using a popular approach, such as planting trees, we would need to plant around\u00a056 million trees\u00a0every year, just to cancel out the carbon cost of all those new laptops. To put that in perspective, there\u2019s estimated to be around 3 billion trees currently in the UK today. Framed this way, it\u2019s easy to see why carbon offsetting is severely limited in its capacity to cancel out the ongoing cost of replacing, let alone powering, the UK\u2019s IT infrastructure.\u202f\u202f\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Could remanufacturing be a silver bullet?\u202f\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Not many people realise that by far the most carbon-intensive part of a laptop\u2019s life is when it\u2019s being made. More than\u00a075% of a laptop\u2019s carbon footprint\u00a0is attributed to the manufacturing process, which makes how we source them, and how long we keep them, immensely important.\u202f\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sustainable IT, and in particular Circular Computing, considers the entire life cycle of IT products, ensuring responsible sourcing of materials and ethical manufacturing practices.\u00a0As one of the global leaders in laptop remanufacturing, Circular Computing sets the gold standard for providing devices that look like new, work like new and cost less, both financially and environmentally. Last year, we asked\u00a0Cranfield University to conduct a full life cycle analysis of our remanufactured laptops and found that they produce over 15x less CO2 during production compared to an average new laptop.\u202f\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That means the decision to buy a remanufactured laptop cuts the carbon cost of acquiring each device down from 331kg to just 15kg. That makes the maths very different; 63,000 metric tons of CO2 every year. If we could as a country rethink the way we buy workplace laptops, we would collectively have taken a significant step towards achieving our country’s net zero pledge.\u202f\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The bottom line\u202f\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the world of sustainability, remanufacturing is a rare win-win-win solution. The first win is the climate cost; by removing the need to buy new, it carries a significantly reduced carbon footprint, 15x less. The second is the financial cost; it costs less than buying new, up to 40% less in some cases. The third is the quality-of-life cost; by converting products to like or better than new appearance and performance, they are indistinguishable from an average new laptop.\u202f\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Unless you\u2019re an architect or working in a film studio, most of the UK\u2019s laptop-using workforce do not need a brand-new, full-spec laptop. Yes, you will always get some employees asking for the latest tech, but when you look at what they\u2019re using it for, most would not see any\u00a0discernible differences\u00a0on a two-year-old model forensically engineered to look and perform better than new.\u202f\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

ESG is increasingly high up the corporate agenda, with\u00a0<\/a>45%\u00a0of the UK\u2019s largest companies now having an ESG measure in executive pay. IT bosses who can contribute to that success stand to earn the gratitude of those responsible for addressing their company\u2019s carbon footprint.\u202f\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Starting the journey to net zero is the hardest step of all, and it\u2019s great to see so many businesses have done just that by making a cast iron carbon pledge. What\u2019s needed now, is smart ideas and swift action, and sustainable IT has all the answers today to help business leaders show progress almost overnight.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Keeping up with the Joneses concept has been around for many years \u2013 people want new and untouched \u2013 but its effects on business structures is, to some extent, responsible for an unsustainable and linear product economy. Steve Haskew, Head of Sustainability and Social Leadership at Circular Computing, explains how to achieve net zero with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":50,"featured_media":105964,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[573,36,7359,13,13207,24],"tags":[19976,19947,14758,17085,14905,10871],"class_list":["post-105963","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-features","category-green","category-industry-expert","category-main-story-newsletter","category-thought-leadership","category-used","tag-carbon-neutrality","tag-circular-computing","tag-co2","tag-esg","tag-net-zero","tag-workplace-technology"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/eu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105963","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/eu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/eu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/eu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/50"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/eu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=105963"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/eu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105963\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":106239,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/eu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105963\/revisions\/106239"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/eu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/105964"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/eu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=105963"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/eu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=105963"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/eu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=105963"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}