Keeping your notebook computer longer can significantly reduce its annual carbon footprint. This climate action is both simple and quick to implement. Our calculator helps you work out exactly how big the reductions will be.
The fast pace of consumption is driving up emissions worldwide, and the IT sector is no exception. Every year, around 250 million brand-new notebook computers are manufactured, in a production process that is both energy-intensive and heavily dependent on fossil fuels. Before you even switch on a notebook for the first time, it has already generated about 250 kilograms of greenhouse gases.
By comparison, the emissions that stem from using your computer are relatively small. The exact figure depends on where you live and how electricity is generated in your region — but unless you use your notebook for more than 20 years, the total footprint from annual use never comes close to the footprint from production.
That’s why keeping your notebook longer makes such a big difference. Fewer purchases mean fewer products need to be manufactured for you — and your average annual footprint shrinks. Double the lifespan of your notebook from three to six years, and you nearly halve its annual emissions from 88.9 kilograms to 47 kilograms — more than 40 kilograms are saved every year. Even one extra year matters: go from three years to four, and your annual footprint drops by 23.5%, or 20 kilograms. This is a simple, powerful step you can take today to reduce your climate impact.
What scope 1, 2 and 3 mean for IT buyers and users
Scope 1: For the buyer and user of IT products, no emissions are scope 1.
Scope 2: Emissions from the energy required to charge and run the IT product.
Scope 3: Emissions from manufacturing, transportation and waste management.
Multiply the effect by 1,000 — or more
If you are involved in purchasing notebook computers and other IT products for an organization, your choices have an even bigger impact. Imagine changing the purchase interval from three to six years for a group of 10 people — this action alone could help prevent the release of 400 kilograms of greenhouse gases annually! If you manage to implement this change for 100 people, simply add a zero. For 1,000 people, add another zero, and pat yourself on the back for preventing 40,000 kilograms of greenhouse gas from being emitted annually. It’s a huge contribution that gives your organization measurable reductions to include in sustainability reporting. The effects are clear and can be seen in the calculator here on the page. For a more detailed report that can be exported to PDF, check our Report Generator.
We need to take action now
Climate change is not a distant problem — it is here, now. As global temperatures rise, emergencies such as heat waves, wildfires, floods, tropical storms, and hurricanes are becoming more frequent, more intense, and more destructive. To combat climate change, we must take swift and decisive action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from all major sources, including the IT sector.
Our current throwaway culture is both unnecessary and unsustainable. When a notebook is discarded after only three years, a staggering 94% of its total lifetime carbon footprint comes from the emissions generated during its manufacturing. What a waste! When you consider that this applies to millions of devices around the world, the scale of the problem becomes clear. If we do not take decisive action, this environmental impact will only continue to grow.
Huge amounts of emissions can be avoided
Around 30 million notebooks certified according to TCO Certified are produced each year. These products meet all of the certification’s product longevity criteria, and are made for a much longer life than three years. If all of these devices were used for six years instead of three, we would prevent over 1.2 million tons of greenhouse gas emissions annually.
That’s equivalent to 2.1 million round-trip flights between New York and London. (A single round-trip flight emits roughly 0.6 tons of CO₂ per passenger). Even one extra year makes a significant difference: cutting nearly 630,000 tons of CO₂ per year, equal to 1 million round-trip flights between New York and London.
Use your notebook longer — save emissions!
Check how much you save by keeping it for more than 3 years.
TCO Certified promotes product longevity
By choosing a notebook marked with TCO Certified, you can be confident that it is built to last. This means fewer reasons to replace your device and more years of productive use.
- All certified notebooks must be durable and possible to upgrade and repair.
- The battery must maintain good quality through many charging cycles and be replaceable.
- The IT brand must support the products it manufactures for at least five years, through product warranties and software updates.
- An independently verified repairability score indicates how easy it is to maintain, reuse, and repair the product.
- IT products must be energy efficient and meet the latest Energy Star standards, or equivalent.
Climate criteria in TCO Certified also target emissions in manufacturing.
- At least 15% of the electricity used in the final assembly of certified products must be procured or generated from renewable sources.
- All display panel factories must implement an energy management system certified to ISO 50001. This is already a requirement for final assembly factories.
- The carbon footprint of certified products is annualized to incentivize the development of products with lower emissions from production and extended lifespans.
- A dynamic list of best practices for reducing scope 3 emissions will help factory owners adopt actions that are proven to be effective.
