Our story
"The most impactful thing that we're doing at Techbuyer to reduce carbon emissions is trying to change attitudes towards 'IT refresh'. IT is responsible for a huge amount of embodied carbon and also critical raw materials, and at the moment the recycling technologies are not there to recover those materials – and of course, you get none of the carbon back.
Our organisation is trying to quantify the embodied carbon and effective recycling rates, and chart a path towards greater circularity of IT equipment. We do this internally – with product life extensions – and externally, working with research partners to quantify the materials that are in service, storage and networking. This data is currently missing and not there in the product specification tables.
The other piece of work that we're doing is that we are proving the energy efficiency of refurbished hardware and remanufactured machines by measuring them."
Astrid Wynne, Techbuyer Sustainability Lead
Useful learnings from Techbuyer IT Refresh
Buying refurbished IT equipment positively impacts the environment by boosting the circular economy, lowering the replacement cycle and reducing electronic waste.
The continuous manufacturing of the latest IT equipment generates tons of electronic waste that it's difficult to control. This happens when buyers (both companies and individuals) are unaware of the alternative: buying refurbished, refreshed IT products.
Over the useful life of IT equipment, there are significant energy and fuel savings from refreshing IT. The manufacture of new IT products requires higher energy consumption and, in cases like smartphones, the use of pollutants in the production process – as well as additional energy and fuel consumption from transportation of components and products by land, sea or air. Local IT refresh significantly reduces these indirect costs and can result in a considerable energy consumption decrease.
Techbuyer IT Refresh metrics
IT equipment refreshed.
Reduction in carbon (embodied and emissions).
Reduction in energy consumption during product lifecycles and e-waste.
