Sustainability in the tech world: what can we do?

Tier1 is a tech company with sustainability at its core. Their ethos of ‘Reduce. Reuse. Recycle.’ resonates throughout the business, as they encourage and enable other businesses to adopt their mission. Tier1 drives decarbonisation through their business - extending the lifecycle of all devices, and creating less electronic waste as a result. E-waste is a serious, global issue within tech - each year 50 million tonnes of e-waste is produced, 80 percent of which ends up in landfill, burned or illegally traded. These numbers are rising too, as the amount produced is expected to double by 2050.

As time goes on, household collections of tech keep growing. This was a phenomena exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, which demanded businesses provide work from home systems for their employees. This means there are more laptops, keyboards, monitors and tech in general in the home now, than ever before. Whilst having an office space at home is certainly not a bad thing, it has contributed to more e-waste being produced across the world.

Whilst most consumers are contributing to this problem, they do also have the opportunity to be a part of the solution, with tier1. Tier1 refurbishes high quality equipment to extend its life, reducing carbon production by 75 percent, per device, when compared to a new product. By extending the lifecycle and enabling the consumer to use their tech for longer, less e-waste is produced, decreasing the demand for new equipment, and reducing the price of the product - making it a win-win for both consumer and environment.

On an individual level, this is an easy change to adopt. However, it’s crucial that businesses adopt this practice on a company-wide scale too - lowering the costs of equipment for the company, as well as making a positive impact on the environment. Producing new IT equipment has a huge impact on a businesses’ carbon footprint - from the resources used to make new devices, to the CO2 produced as part of the manufacturing process. Considering the amount of equipment companies require for each employee, there’s a huge opportunity to make a positive impact, simply by switching to refurbished tech.

Not only will this lessen the financial cost of equipment to the company, it’s a change that also has the capacity to improve consumer opinion of the company - and with this, demand. Consumers are more environmentally conscious than ever, and increasingly are directing their support (and money) towards businesses who are making the effort to improve their sustainability.

Sustainability also typically encourages innovation, ultimately leading to more competitive performance across industries. As well as reducing e-waste, sustainable technologies look at improving energy efficiency, reducing the environmental impact of digital systems and encouraging the responsible use of resources. All of these elements encourage tech companies to innovate to find the most efficient solutions to their problems. Finding ways to bolster work rate, whilst also improving energy-efficiency across the board, requires brain power and forward-thinking - which can only ever improve overall performance and output.

Tech giants such as Apple and Google are great examples of this. Apple is working towards powering its operations with 100 percent renewable energy, whereas Google is investing into renewable energy projects for power. Leading the way, these companies set a great example for other tech companies, and also prove that smaller businesses can perform at an elite level whilst maintaining a sustainable approach to business.

If your business is yet to incorporate some serious steps to making operations more sustainable, then now is the time to do so. This process can be kicked off with an internal audit to evaluate all of your current processes in order to identify any unsustainable actions. Then, assess what changes can be made across these actions to turn things around and create a more sustainable setup. Green upgrades such as efficient equipment, renewable power sources, increasing operational efficiency by reducing storage and power usage and purchasing refurbished equipment from companies like tier1 are some basic changes that can have a great impact on reducing your carbon footprint. Making your business more sustainable is a necessity in today’s world, we must all make the conscious decision to improve sustainability across the board in order to prepare for the future.