Circularity and jugaad: This is why environmentalism must become your business mantra

Sustainability is finally a business priority . What might once have been a line item for boardroom consideration is now at the top of the corporate agenda. Every executive must help their organizations deliver on sustainability targets – and CIOs can play a fundamental role in a shift towards a ‘circular economy’ .?

First coined as a term in the late 1980s, and then supported by various experts as a means to a more sustainable model during the past decade, the circular economy is a mode of production and consumption that involves reusing, repairing, refurbishing and recycling existing materials and products for as long as possible.

Our latest research also highlights how the regenerative processes of the circular economy provide fresh opportunities to organizations. To take advantage of these possibilities, the research says business leaders must start urgently rethinking their economic and business models, as well as their production systems. ?

I believe that circularity – with its emphasis on making more of what we have, rather than simply making more – can help us to reduce the waste associated to the IT industry. By adopting a circular approach, businesses can act in a much more sustainable manner.?

The concept of circularity is in sharp contrast to the unsustainable over-reliance on waste that characterizes Western societies. Consumerism has led to us acquiring ever-increasing amounts of goods and services. It’s created a comfortable life for many, yet its legacy is environmental degradation and potentially global devastation. ?

As the demand for goods increases, so does the need to produce them. This requirement leads to pollutant emissions and accelerated climate change. To prevent warming beyond 1.5°C,?we need to reduce emissions by 7.6% every year through to 2030 , says the United Nations (UN).?

Producers and consumers of technology will be crucial to this affirmative action. The ICT industry currently accounts for about 3% of global carbon emissions. The most significant contributions of greenhouse gases in this sector are data centers (45%), followed by communications networks (24%).?

Our reliance on technology is only going one way: upwards. Today, ICT consumes 10% of the total electricity supply ; there is a risk that it might reach 20% by 2030 if we do nothing. With demand increasing, we must work hard to not only stabilize but reduce the impact of technology on waste and emissions. ?

Researchers suggest the ICT sector’s carbon footprint could be reduced by as much as 80% if all electricity consumed came from renewable energy sources. Yet power consumption isn’t the only area where the exploitation of technology impacts the environment. ?

The production and destruction of technology consumes finite resources and creates waste. As much as 53.6 million metric tons of electronic waste was generated worldwide in 2019, up 21% in just five years, according to the UN’s Global E-waste Monitor 2020. ?

Only 17.4% of that huge amount of e-waste was collected and recycled. Gold, silver and other high-value, recoverable materials valued at $57 billion – which is a sum greater than the GDP of most countries – was dumped or burned rather than being collected and reused.?

Every year we fail to act, the level of difficulty and cost to reduce emissions goes up. The climate emergency we all face means businesses around the world must act now to cut harmful emissions and waste that will lead to irreversible damage.

I believe the circular economy can help Western societies to make a move in the right direction. One concept that resonates here is ‘jugaad’, which is a colloquial term used across India that refers – in the simplest terms – to non-conventional, frugal innovation.

Jugaad involves building something new out of a product that might otherwise have been thrown away. As my colleague Lee Beardmore explained in a blog post for Capgemini three years ago, Jugaad is a way of life in India. He describes how it involves doing more with less, such as repurposing washing machines to whip up yogurt drinks.

Lee explains how jugaad is all about implementing creativity quickly to drive innovation in the face of cost pressures and adversity. He suggests businesses could use the concept to adapt to uncertain circumstances. Now three years later, due to growing recognition of the climate emergency, the need for creative solutions is even greater.

The prominence of jugaad in India can be juxtaposed with the approach that predominates in Western economies, where something broken is simply discarded as junk. Our society usually sees a product failure as synonymous with end of life.

Our throw-away consumerism is not just an approach that dominates at home – we take a similar approach in business too, particularly when it comes to IT. Think of hardware: your business buys a server, runs it for maybe five years, and then disposes of it because calculations show the mean time before failure (MTBF) might increase.

Of course, your vendor expects you to come to a similar conclusion and is only too happy to sell you a brand-new server. However, while disposability might be an accepted business practice, it isn’t in any way sustainable.

Rather than rip and replace, I think we should look to recycle and reuse. Jugaad must become a way of life for us at home and at work. Just as I worked with a friend of mine to fix his broken washing machine recently by simply replace the brushes instead of buying a new one, so we should look at ways to tease more life out of the technology products we buy and run in our businesses.

We must acknowledge that precious resources are finite. As an industry, and as businesses that consume these IT products, we must do better. We must find ways to extend the life, to reuse or maybe even upcycle the technology hardware that we consume.

Yes, MTBF for IT kit might increase after five years, but that doesn’t mean the technology is useless. Just because a vendor releases new kit, it doesn’t mean you as an individual or a manager running a business have to buy it. If it’s not mission-critical technology, look to extend its life or put it to a different use.

Even if your business does have to replace IT hardware due to lack of support from the manufacturer, that doesn’t mean it can’t be used elsewhere. Kit that might once have been used in a critical part of the business can be used in non-production areas.

If you can’t find another use for the device internally, then engage with other organizations about how they repurpose hardware to give people around the world access to technology they lack currently. A number of specialists – such as Computers 4 Charity and Computer Aid – create circular solutions for the technology that enterprises no longer need.

The conclusion is simple: we need to think much more creatively about the hardware we discard. The implementation of jugaard in India is often due to necessity. A lack of money means people have to make innovative choices over reuse and recycling. In the West we’ve ignored making such innovative choices. When something breaks, we replace it.

It’s an attitude that’s remained unchallenged until very recently. I remember giving a presentation on sustainability to CIOs just before the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic. There was little appetite for dealing with environmental change. The general sentiment was that sustainability, if it was an issue, was someone else’s responsibility.

Now, that attitude is anathema. There's been a big sea change in behavior; people want to change. However, recognizing the need to act is just a starting point. Your customers know that actions speak louder than words – and they will spot any attempts at greenwashing.

Rather than making sustainability an aspiration, environmentalism must become a mantra. Just as clothing company Patagonia has made the climate crisis its business , your organization must find ways to put the principles of the circular economy at the core of its business model.

Capgemini research last year found that 79% of consumers are changing their purchase preferences based on social responsibility , inclusiveness, or environmental impact. Failure to act sustainably now won’t just affect our long-term futures, it will negatively impact your company’s bottom line in the near term.

Now is the time to make sustainable decisions that help reduce the ever-growing mountain of e-waste. Business leaders must take responsibility for environmental change and show the way to a better future. We must all lead by example.

Thanks for Reading! Gunnar