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Green information technology, also known as Green IT, is the practice of environmentally sustainable computing. The concept of Green IT emerged in 1992 when the U.S Environmental Protection Agency launched Energy Star, a labeling program that helps people and organizations save money and reduce greenhouse gas emissions by identifying factories, office equipment, home appliances and electronics that have superior energy efficiency.

United Nations University (UNU) reported that out of the 50 million tonnes of e-waste generated globally, only about 20% is recycled properly, meaning an astounding 80% either end up incinerated or in landfills and rivers. It pollutes the land, water and air, resulting in serious health hazards as witnessed in Africa continent countries.

While recycling is an option, it is not the absolute solution to e-waste. To diminish e-waste, we must first reduce and reuse, that is the reason why those two come before ‘recycle’. Most businesses these days operate with information technology (IT) and many of them are beginning to consider going Green as they realize that sustainable practice is beneficial in many ways.

Adopting Green IT can, most importantly, help your company save money. Regular PC power management software can cut energy cost up to 6 to 7-figures annual savings for large companies. This can mean a 5 to 15% reduction in overall, company-wide energy consumption. Not to mention, replacing office equipment can be time and cost-intensive. That is why making your existing equipment more energy-efficient is the best choice for your company and it is a fast and easy process too!

Manufacturing just one desktop computer and monitor takes roughly 530lb (240kg) of fossil fuel, 48lb (21.8kg) of chemicals, and 1.5 tonnes of water. In every 15 PCs, carbon dioxide (CO2) of a mid-sized car is being emitted each year. What’s more, the average PC consumes 588 kWh of electricity per year and wastes almost 400 kWh running at full-power when not in use. Putting a computer in sleep mode during inactive times can cut energy use on average 60 to 70% and up to 90% in aggressive scenarios.

As individuals, employees would feel a deep sense of pride working in an organization that does their part for the environment. They will feel proud that they’re helping to reduce the company’s carbon footprint and becoming a cost-saving and sustainability hero!

Practicing Green IT isn’t difficult. Everyone can start by simple steps like switching off unused equipment, turning off the computer or putting it in standby mode. Better still, switch to remanufactured PCs where used computers are transformed to “as new” condition with matching warranty. The fact is, up to 85% of carbon footprint is produced during the manufacturing process, as reported by University of Michigan. This is reiterated by Ernst & Young that up to 225kg of carbon is reduced when a computer is remanufactured.

Rentwise has been practicing Green IT for over 18 years supporting our clients in their IT asset lifecycle management, freeing them from non-core tasks and allowing them to focus on value-creation activities for their business. With Rentwise, you can be assured of preserving mother earth for our future generation and yield profitable returns in the process.

Why remanufacturing? IT equipment represents an alarmingly high amount of carbon footprint – 350kg for a laptop, 600kg for a desktop, and 6,360kg for a rack server. To put into perspective, 15 laptops produce carbon emission as much as a mid-sized car. What’s more shocking is that almost 70% of the laptops that were disposed of every day can still be reused. Many people think that the circular economy is just another way to describe recycling, but that isn’t the reality, it is much more than just recycling. Remanufactured equipment impacts the environment positively and helps reduce carbon footprint as it does not need to go through the entire manufacturing process again.

What is remanufacturing? Remanufacturing is a standardized industrial process where cores are returned to same-as-new, or better, condition and performance. It should not be confused with refurbishing which only repairs parts where needed to restore full functionality hence usability and performance are lackluster.

What about performance? The perception that latest would be greatest gives a false sense of assurance for technology users to keep driving IT equipment refreshes, despite knowing the devastating environmental and climate impact caused by these growing e-wastes. However, according to a study by Cranfield University (UK), remanufactured computers perform at 93% – 97% of the performance of brand new computers.

The study compared the performance of new and remanufactured laptops in order to discover the real differences from a standard office user’s perspective, using industry standard PC benchmarking tool with comprehensive, verifiable office application benchmark that utilizes popular office productivity software, simulating workloads representative of the modern day office user.

Is 3% worth it?

Remanufactured PCs perform near equal to brand new PCs, some even perform better than new laptops and PCs.

From the wide-array tests, it evidently proves that remanufactured PCs is a prudent choice for office users as it is significantly lower in price compared to new PCs with insignificant variance in performance. Ensuring a right-fit methodology instead of blindly chasing after the latest and greatest, and most importantly, infuse the sustainability factor in each decision-making would represent a best practice for any wise organizations.

On top of that all, mining operations to manufacture new computers damage land, use up huge amounts of energy and lead to pollution in the air, soil and water systems. Once the laptop or computer is no longer deemed “new enough” it is likely to be disposed of in third world countries where e-waste continues to inflict further harm on people and mother earth. Remanufacturing is an outcome of circular economy, which is aligned to United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals for responsible consumption and production that looks at all options across the supply chain to use as few resources as possible, keeping IT infrastructure operating for as long as possible, extracting maximum value from them.

Similarly, ethical disposal of PCs and laptops when no longer in ‘new’ condition, ensuring whether could it be repurposed before the eventual recycle is a big step toward a greener tomorrow, and it’s better than just disposing of equipment without care.

We at Rentwise believe that you don’t have to damage our environment to operate or grow a business. We encourage business owners and organizations to join us in preserving mother earth for our future generation by adopting this holistic practice. Remanufactured business grade computers supplied by Rentwise looks like new, works like new and is given up to 3-year warranty which is comparable with brand new business-grade equipment in the market. Only robust and durable business-grade equipment are remanufactured which qualify unsurpassed military grade (MIL-STD810G), meaning they are able to withstand dust, temperature, water, drop, and shock tests.

*Disclaimer: The above statistic is purely based on research by Cranfield University and does not reflect the actual brand.

The planet Earth is with finite natural resources. With the accelerating pace of our technology development, the traditional linear economy practice of take, make, use and dispose shall inevitably exhaust these irreplaceable resources rapidly, leaving our next generations with drastic after-effects. Climate changes, global warming, and depletion of rare earth or virgin materials, among others.

The circular economy is a model of responsible production and consumption, which involves sharing, leasing, reusing, repairing, remanufacturing and recycling existing materials and products for as long as possible. Circular economy does not only apply to laptops, computers and other electrical appliances, it also applies to almost everything we use on a daily basis.

The high demand economy we have now operate as if we could source virgin materials forever, this creates business risks among all the other risks, as virgin materials become increasingly difficult and expensive to source which results in companies being struck with material shortages, in turn, pushing up material prices and threatening continuity of operations and margins. What’s more, our ability to produce economic growth is being challenged.

In order to help liberate their supply chains from sourcing instability, more and more companies are pursuing alternative approaches that decouple economic growth from resource constraints. Some are even taking a step further than recycling to turn waste into a resource managing them throughout their entire lifecycles, in other words, “circular economy” is a way of “designing out” waste.

The circular economy is a departure from the traditional, linear economic model, it is not about recycling in a better way at the end of the pipe, it’s about rethinking product service solutions in a way that allow the value to be captured through remanufacturing and reuse. When a product reaches the end of its life, its materials are kept within the economy wherever possible.

In light of the severe climate changes impacting planet Earth, major global enterprises have begun accelerating their respective efforts, further propelled by the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals for responsible consumption and production. The Hewlett-Packard Company (HP) sees the circular economy as a means to prevent depletion of the earth’s natural resources beyond itself. Intel, on the other hand, has set a goal to recycle 90% of its non-hazardous waste. Since 2008, Intel recycled 75% of total waste generated from its operations. Fashion retailer H&M aims to use 100% recycled or sustainably sourced materials by 2030 and to eliminated hazardous chemicals at the beginning of the process.

Electronics giant Dell has set a goal to use 100 million pounds of recycled-content plastic and other sustainable materials in its products by 2020. Meanwhile, Apple is aiming to use 100% recycled materials to make its iPhones, MacBooks and other electronic products in the future. The tech company has also launched the Apple GiveBack programme to make it easier for customers to recycle end-of-life products.

Rentwise has been practicing circular economy for more than 17 years, remanufacturing and leasing IT infrastructure that has been retired. Providing clients with products and services with a valued difference while protecting the environment, this has been the value system within our DNA.

Rentwise is always looking for organizations to collaborate in their circular economy journey to preserve the earth’s environment for a better future, while positively impacting their operational efficiencies.

Recycling is a good practice to reduce waste in the world. However, that doesn’t seem to be the case when it comes to electronics! While it isn’t bad to recycle your computer or smartphone, making that a panacea for the e-waste crisis we currently have certainly is.

People often misunderstood ‘recycling’ when it comes to electronics. The reality is that, as a solution, recycling barely scratches the surface as a solution to the growing e-waste crisis.

According to a UN report, the United States of America produces about 14% of the world’s electronic waste. Sadly, almost 45 million tons of electronics were tossed out in 2016 worldwide. Out of that staggering amount of electronic waste, only 20% has been recycled in some shape or form, and the remaining 80% ends up in a landfill making more damage to the environment.

What the majority of users don’t realize is that many ‘recyclers’ actually just ship most of the e-waste abroad where instead of being recycled, usable parts are repurposed and minerals are extracted. In addition, the methods used are almost always improper and unusable equipment is dumped in the ground improperly. The current rate of responsible e-waste recycling is at an abysmal 15.5% worldwide.

E-waste continues to grow at a rate of 4% each year and it’s impossible to cope with. While there is an increased focus on recycling today compared to the past, the efforts to sustain reclaimed used devices can’t keep up with the massive consumption of new devices.

This is caused by the short life cycles of new devices and manufacturers rushing out new models to eager consumers. On average, a smartphone is used for just two years before it gets replaced.

As consumers, we must remember that recycling is first and foremost a removal from circulation and an implicit incentive to produce and buy new. According to Apple, 77% of the carbon footprint of their electronics come from their manufacture and only 17% comes from its actual use. The environmental impact of replacing a device, even after recycled, remains significant.

Recycling is useful, but there is an urgent need to recognize the limits of electronics recycling and to look hard at the root of our growing e-waste problem.

Only the extension of the life of the devices currently in circulation through maintenance, remanufacturing, and reuse in one form or another, can have a meaningful effect on our environment. We must not rely on recycling. To have a sustainable impact on the e-waste crisis, we must produce less to pollute less, and also, to find a way to do that without sacrificing our current quality of life.

We at Rentwise, are constantly extending the lives of devices through remanufacturing, giving them second and third lives and keeping them out of landfills as it is the most practical and intelligent approach. We encourage business owners and organizations to join us in our Green IT venture to preserve mother earth.