Sustainable IT and It's Impact (April)
This #EarthMonth we’re shining a light on the impact technology has on the environment and how IT teams can help in the fight against climate change.
There are two main problems when it comes to sustainability in the tech world:
In the report RETHINKING EXTENDING REUSING: HARNESSING DIGITAL TECHNOLOGIES FOR THE CIRCULAR ECONOMY, the One Planet network - 10YFP , UN Environment Programme (UNEP) and the Metabolic Institute collaborated and developed three main approaches to enhance the circular economy. One of the approaches is centered around extending the lifespan of products and its parts. With the lack of minerals and resources, supply chain issues, and poor disposal of retired devices, it’s imperative to develop a strategy that extends the life of well-functioning devices without impacting the employee experience.
“In 2019 an estimated 53.6 million metric tons of e-waste was generated globally, of which only 17.4 per cent was collected for recycling.” - Rethinking Extending Reusing
?Relying solely on employee sentiment and your standard 1–3-year refresh cycle is what got us into this problem to begin with. So how do we fix it? By using device data. Nexthink’s Quantifying e-waste in Corporate IT report analyzed 1.38 million anonymized devices 3+ years old and found that less than 2% needed to be fully replaced. Imagine you run the same analysis on your own devices – how much e-waste could you avoid and how much money could you save? While the greater good of saving the environment should be enough, we see those dollar signs in your eyes, so listen to FHI 360 who saved $400,000 by adjusting their hardware refresh strategy.
Once you have the device creation and distribution under control your next step is addressing the resources needed to power those devices. According to data mentioned in Rethinking Extending Reusing, ICT currently accounts for approximately 5–9% of global electricity use and is projected to increase to approximately 20% by 2030. ICT also emits around 1.8–3.9% of global greenhouse gases (GHG) and is largely attributed to the consumption of energy at data centers and the use-phase. Meanwhile, water cooling of data centers consumes the equivalent of 120,000 Olympic-sized swimming pools per year (0.2–0.8 L per kWh), contributing to global water stress.
Ok – so you get it. It’s a real issue and you’re bought in. What now? How can you start implementing this new sustainable IT strategy?
Nexthink’s Green IT library pack provides a summary and four focused dashboards to help you:
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Other ways to reduce e-waste and energy consumption? Nexthink's Battery Status library pack. You'll be able to determine the health status of laptops' batteries in terms of capacity that they can still hold, identify which batteries need to be replaced and optimize the power settings of devices.
Take a look at your sustainable IT strategy today and ask yourself: could I be doing more?
More Sustainable IT Stories and Resources
?? Listen to Marvin Nusseck talk about how circular economics steps beyond measuring carbon emissions and may be the answer to improved sustainability on The DEX Show
?? Read about how Sustainable IT Is the Future & The Future Is Now
?? Learn how Nexthink's IT and CSR teams combined forces to push our ESG goals forward.
?? Discover insights from Gartner?? Predicts 2024: Build a Sustainable and Collaborative Digital Workplace Infrastructure
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