The impact of digital terminals in business: pollution and challenges
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Digital equipment is occupying an increasingly important place in businesses and it is becoming urgent to talk about impacts and pollution that they generate.
In France, in 2019, digital technology represented 2% of French greenhouse gases (WeNR). By 2040, this is expected to rise to 7%.
Regularly sorting and discarding your e-mails, turning off your wifi router the day before your vacation... Small actions are important, but they are not the most effective in reducing the impact of digital equipment in business as much as possible.
In the life cycle of office equipment, the Manufacturing is responsible for 77% of GHG emissions. THEutilizing of this equipment represents 5.7% of emissions.
So What is the impact of terminals in business in Europe? What actions can be taken to reduce it? Rzilient helps you to see more clearly what actions to take to reconciling IT management and responsibility.
For this, we are going to rely on the report WeNR (2021), a study of the carbon impact of Information Systems of 75 participating organizations in France, Belgium and Switzerland, involving 1,309,604 employees and collaborators and 4,951,305 pieces of equipment.
Manufacturing: the main source of digital pollution. And the others?
A tool makes it possible to become aware and to measure The impact of computer terminals and equipment in a global and multi-criteria manner, in taking into account all emission items linked to the product, at each stage of its life: it is theACV (life cycle analysis).
This concerns:
- the extraction of energetic and non-energetic raw materials necessary for manufacturing;
- manufacturing;
- distribution;
- use;
- collection;
- transport;
- elimination at the end of life.
Each terminal in a company does not emit the same quantity of GHGs throughout its life. Here is the analysis of the WeNR report and The distribution What comes out of it:
- desktop computers: 14.9%
- screens: 21.4%
- printers: 13.9%
- laptop computers;
- tablets: 4.9%
- smartphones: 7.3%
- others: 14.2%
Pollution linked to manufacturing
Les computers, desktop and portable, are the the most polluting equipment, those with the largest environmental footprint. It is essentially linked to their manufacture; in fact, for a 2 kg laptop, these are:
- 800 kg of raw materials mobilized,
- and 124 kg of CO2 generated, out of the 169 kg emitted over its entire life cycle (Ademe).
Manufacturing has a significant impact not only because of the extraction of materials but also because of transport. It is estimated that a smartphone makes Circling the globe 4 times before it can be used and needs 70 different materials for its construction. (ADEME)
And the negative impacts do not only concern extraction and transport, we must not forget:
- La soil and water pollution,
- THEdrying raw resources, in particular water,
- Les disastrous working conditions workers in some countries.
The impact of digital terminals during their use and end of life
The impact of terminals also comes from Their use, in particular of The energy needed to store data and send it, thanks to datacenters and network equipment.
The WeNR study reports that the GHGs emitted by data centers are 6.8% when used buts 10.1% for manufacturing.
Likewise, when it comes to office equipment, their use does not represent the greatest impact: emissions are of 5.7% for participating organizations. On the other hand, the How they are used will affect their lifespan. Thus, rational use will have a direct impact on the quantity of equipment consumed by the organization, and therefore on the manufacture of even more equipment.
The end of life of terminals pollutes also. Participating organizations generated over 1.9 million kilos of Electronic and Electrical Waste (WEEE), i.e. 2 kg per user per year.
3 tips to reduce the impact of your equipment
1. Buy less but better
It is important to generalize an approach responsible purchasing to consume less but better. That's what we're doing by offering refurbished computer equipment in France, for example.
Rzilient allows you to adopt agile financing solutions and to enter theeconomy of functionality with your equipment thanks to Leasing your fleet computer science.
Our devices are also available for purchase, and we encourage you to:
- opt for eco-designed products,
- select devices with eco-labels (EPEAT or TCO Certified).
2. Consider its use and extend the lifespan as much as possible
To reduce the carbon footprint of its terminals as much as possible, it is important to prolong their use.
It becomes necessary to look at therepairability index, which since 2021 has been a mandatory mention on digital and electronic shelves. The higher the grade, the easier it will be to fix it.
Likewise, controlled use thanks to a few simple actions, makes it possible to extend the life of the terminals:
- Do only the essential updates ;
- Switch off your device leaving in the evening;
- Offer a second life by Recycler.
Get out of psychological obsolescence caused by marketing and the production of new equipment more and more closely together.
3. Don't forget to recycle what you can
RRecycle your equipment to integrate them into a circular digital approach is essential in order to produce new whose components will come from this recycling, and to avoid the extraction of raw resources.
Did you know that there is over 100 times more gold in a ton of phones than in a ton of gold mining? The practice of Urban mining (recovery of rare metals from electronic and electrical equipment waste), which is beginning to be democratized, makes perfect sense.
For Recycle your computer equipment, the best solution remains to Give it to professionals who in turn will integrate it into a circular economy approach. Or else to the drop off at dedicated locations that guarantee good recycling.
It is also necessary to think about setting up a responsible digital policy in his company with responsible referees or eveneco-design some of the services.
Do you want to reduce the impact of your IT equipment within your company? What if we discussed your project?
Sources:
https://librairie.ademe.fr/cadic/1866/guide-pratique-impacts-smartphone.pdf?modal=false
https://hyssop.agency/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/DigestNumerique-Hyssop.pdf
https://librairie.ademe.fr/cadic/6555/guide-en-route-vers-sobriete-numerique.pdf
