Sustainable Information Technology (IT) covers the manufacturing, use, management and disposal of IT in a way that minimises its impact on the environment.
This text is part of the Circular Electronics Initiative blog series. Multiple organizations stand behind this initiative that aims sto encourage organizations and consumers to take a more responsible approach to electronics.
To manufacture IT in a way which does not harm the environment it is crucial to explore methods in which we can reduce the number of materials and chemicals during production. This can be from making more environmentally friendly packaging by cutting down on filler and plastic to ensuring the processes which are used in manufacturing more energy efficient.
Circular Computing™ tackles the idea of Sustainable IT through a product recovery method known as remanufacturing, where existing laptops are disassembled, repaired and even upgraded to be ‘equal to or better than new’.
Why does sustainable IT matter?
The Earth’s resources are finite. Since the turn of the millennium, the world has been using its natural resources at an alarmingly fast rate. The global material footprint rose from 54 billion tonnes in 2000, to 92 billion in 2017, an increase of 70 per cent (UN Stats, 2019).
As the leaders of world commit to the “Build Back Better Agenda” following COP26, there remains a distinct lack of discussion around natural resource protection – which provides the backbone to the very meaning of the word sustainability.
IT is currently the most used office hardware and is havi