The important role of tech companies in the circular economy?

Addressing Issues Within The Supply Chain

While definitions vary, the circular economy is popularly based on eliminating waste and preserving material as much as possible in the product lifecycle, which is why in the technology sector there is increasing pressure to share, lease, repair, refurbish and recycle materials.

No circular economy can be achieved without first understanding the lifecycle of materials in the supply chain, from raw materials and components through to tools, spare parts, consumables, packaging and everything in between. What to some may be a small network of stakeholders is to others a vast and complicated infrastructure, covering multiple territories and cohering to strict timelines.

To say that sustainability may not be addressed equally across every facet of the supply chain would for most be a vast understatement. But one guarantee that every business can make is that the information and data around the application and lifecycle of materials, energy and water exist and can be collected across each stage of its supply chain. Establishing transparency of a business’s materiality is one of the first steps to understanding what improvements can be made to achieving a circular economy, whether that be reusing or recycling materials, reducing transport emissions, using renewable energy, and so on.

Remanufacturing

The process of remanufacturing is, in layman’s terms, using a combination of new and spare parts and repairing broken parts for the creation of new products. This eliminates unnecessary waste by a significant amount and is massively beneficial to the circular economy.

The increasingly popular ‘reduce, reuse, recycle’ mindset is one key initiative that companies should follow to enhance their materiality in order to achieve a circular economy. And in many cases, companies that have embraced this mindset find that they reuse and recycle from unconventional areas to benefit the business overall. Even building materials can be reused and repurposed for different products or for different areas of the business.

Today, there are many ways for businesses to recycle and reuse materials in a convenient manner and having these practices in place not only helps contribute to the creation of a circular economy, it also increases product lifecycles and saves waste and money.

The savings these measures create for the business can then be passed onto consumers in multiple ways, offering more reliable, longer life, easier to maintain or cheaper products. And if businesses choose to provide a way for consumers to recycle their electronics, they will further fuel an ecosystem of sustainable consumption and production that will be greatly beneficial to society now and in the future.

But this pursuit for change can, without the appropriate expertise, be timely and expensive. And key to becoming a more sustainable organisation is learning from industry and inter-industry peers. That’s why membership bodies such as the Responsible Business Alliance (RBA) are so important, as they offer members years of best practice experience spanning global markets in helping businesses raise their environmental and social standards in the supply chain to advance their realisation of a circular economy.

Addressing The Office Carbon Footprint

We know that current economic pressures are causing businesses to take a closer look at office running costs. Switching to renewable energy suppliers, abolishing single use plastics, using water and light sensors to preserve energy, and using local resources where possible are just some of the key practices that companies should be planning if not already implementing in the wider pursuit of a circular economy.

But taking a closer look at an office’s running costs draws a spotlight on economic and ecological shortcomings they’re unlikely to have been previously aware of. Finding that an unreasonable amount of money is being spent on printer expenses is no revolutionary discovery, but finding that high energy consumption, high intervention, and low ink yields are causing you both money loss and increasing your carbon footprint is not something any business wants to see, particularly when it’s easily prevented through a simple technology switch.

Prioritising Sustainability

Ultimately, while the main concern for a lot of manufacturers at the moment is to cut costs and increase revenue, the risk that businesses may not pay enough attention to long-term brand sustainability, and therefore increasingly contribute to global carbon emissions, cannot be ignored.

A company’s messaging and its products should have an educational aspect for its customers around the importance of quality and environmentally sustainable technology, which may not always compete on initial pricing, but could offer superior running costs and eco benefits in the long run.

While long-term planning and collaboration are key to achieving a circular economy, each business needs to have its own strategy for achieving profit through sustainable methods.