Download our Circular Digital Charter

Discover our Circular Digital Charter!

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“Digital technology is now at the heart of the functioning of our society. At a time of increasing digitalization - often uncontrolled - of business activities, the challenges of pollution and digital overconsumption have become critical.

Indeed, the growth of our information systems is unsustainable, and digital technology has worrying environmental impacts¹. However, it remains a great tool and a major challenge for the ecological transition, whose resilience and sustainability must be guaranteed.

Structuring a Responsible Digital approach within companies, both at the organizational and individual levels, is essential to be up to the task. Rzilient exists precisely to promote digital technology with a positive impact and put responsible and circular practices back at the center of the digital approach of businesses.

In this sense, we have concocted a Charter of Digital Eco-Gestures, prioritized according to the impact of the actions recommended, so that each stakeholder can contribute at their own level to the sustainable IT policy of their organization.

After awareness, action, all together, at our level 💪”

Audren Letellier‍

CSR manager at Rzilient¹

¹ Digital technology in Europe, Greenit.fr, 2021

Five key actions to adopt to limit your digital impact at work

1. Know and understand the challenges of digital pollution

• Identify the reference sources : Institute for Responsible Digital Technology, Ademe, Greenit.fr, Responsible Digital Label...
• Avoid overconsumption and Define your iT needs and digital as accurately as possible
• Check the regulation in force concerning the management of your IT fleet or your WEEE*

💡 Good to know:

In Europe, the biggest impact is not related to the use of the device (44%), but to its manufacture (54%).

Source: GreenIT, Digital technology in Europe: an approach to environmental impacts through life cycle analysis (NumEU)

*WEEE: Waste electrical and electronic equipment

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2. Reducing the equipment rate

• Promote the equipment rental rather than buying, and reinject it into circular digital technology at the end of the rental
• Don't give in to psychological obsolescence, or cultural, which pushes us to change a product that is still in good working condition for another similar, more recent
• Give preference to multifunction equipment and share them with your friends, families, colleagues

💡 Good to know:

The environmental impact of digital technology in France does not necessarily come from where we think:

🖥 Terminals (and in particular screens and televisions) generate most of the environmental impacts (from 65 to 92%)...

💾... followed by data centers (from 4 to 20%)...

⛓... then networks (from 4 to 13%) .¹

In France in 2020, each user owned an average of 11 devices (including connected objects).

¹ Ademe-Arcep study, The environmental footprint of digital technology in France, 2022

² Green IT, Environmental impacts of digital technology in France, 2020

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3. Extend the life of devices

• Adopt some refurbished equipment, for rent or for purchase
• Prefer buying or renting eco-designed appliances, improvable and repairable
• Repair and maintain your iT equipment
• Optimize the management of your IT fleet : reuse hardware internally, centralize IT processes, simplify access to iT support for your employees

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4. Adopt simple uses

• Store locally your data on a hard drive rather than on the cloud
• Use The Tiny Suspender expansion to regulate the activity of your pages
• Delete regularly your outdated data
• Give priority The wired connection to wifi or to 4G or 5G
• Unplug your devices when they are charged and Switch them off when they are in hibernation

Good to know 💡:

Going from 2 to 4 years of use for a tablet or computer improves your environmental balance by 50%.

The manufacture of a 2 kg computer is:

➤ 588 kg of raw materials mobilized

➤ 156 kg of CO2 generated, out of the 169 kg emitted over its entire life cycle

Source: Ademe, Eco-responsible in the office, Effective actions and good resolutions, 2020

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4. Collect D3Es

• Do Take back your iT equipment unused by professionals
• Give priority to Donation to a reuse actor, or deposit your equipment in a suitable container to optimize recycling
• Recycle your computer hardware if it cannot be reused, reused or reconditioned

💡 Good to know:

The production of D3E in the world amounts to almost 60 million tons for 2021. A figure that is constantly increasing, and that will reach 75 million by 2030 as things stand today.¹

17% of D3Es in the world are collected for recycling (the rest is incinerated, buried or goes through illegal channels) .²

Less than 20% of a smartphone is recyclable.³

¹ WEE, What countries are doing to tackle e-waste, 2022

² Global e-Waste Monitor 2020

³ Insee, The economy and society in the digital age, 2019

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In short

The most eco-friendly device is the one that wasn't made.

For purchase (or rental)

Ask yourself about your needs and take a more simple approach when choosing your computer hardware.

In use

Streamline your needs, extend the life of existing devices, and use them responsibly and sparingly.

At the end of life

Systematically collect your WEEE so that it can be depolluted and recycled as much as possible

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Do you need a new generation iT partner?

Contact our team and let's go into circular digital technology together. 🌱

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