Responsible organisations tackling the climate emergency are increasingly keen to offset the carbon footprint of their IT equipment – and none more so than colleges and universities, which are eager to attract a young, environmentally-conscious customer base.
Research studies show that people of undergraduate age are more concerned about the climate emergency than older citizens. The most recent study from the social research agency, NatCen, found that more than 90% of adults of any age group agree that climate change is real. However, while nearly one in three (32%) of 18-34 year olds are extremely worried about its impact, that drops to one in four (25%) for all age groups.
Additionally, the research shows that attitudes to the climate emergency are amplified by education level. Twice as many people educated to degree level say they have given “a lot” or “a great deal” of thought to climate change issues compared with those educated to GCSE level (57% compared with 27%).
These concerns are prompting universities to actively explore how IT infrastructure decisions affect their record on tackling the climate emergency. As Justin Francis, senior procurement manager at the University of Plymouth, reveals, this encompasses the full life of computing equipment, from manufacture to decommissioning.
“As part of our wider sustainable campus goal, we are working to reduce the environmental impact of our IT operations,” he says. “To do that, we need help and support from our technology providers to not only reduce the impact but to also calculate the carbon footprint for the entire lifecycle of each product so we can offset it.”
This commitment from organisations to play a proactive role in minimising their carbon footprint is one of the biggest trends noticed by Stefan Larsen, EMEA head of environment service solutions at the computer manufacturer Lenovo. In his experience, it has now become commonplace for tech experts to consult with sustainability colleagues when deciding which IT vendor to buy from.
“A few years ago we would only occasionally expect clients’ sustainability teams to be involved with decisions, but now it is becoming increasingly common,” he says.
“To retain and win new customers, a computer manufacturer has to be able to go beyond declarations of what they are doing to minimise their impact to give a customer some tangible evidence of what it means for them.”
He says that this need for Lenovo’s customers to show how they are tackling the climate crisis has prompted his company to launch a new carbon offsetting service. Before an organisation places an order, it is informed of the CO2 impact of making and shipping the equipment, and then running it for up to five years, with a choice of how to offset that figure.
“We have calculated the full-life carbon footprint of each unit we sell and can add that up to give an organisation the final sum required to offset an order,” he says.
“They can tick a box to fund one of the United Nations Climate Control projects we support and, in return, we send them a certificate to prove they have chosen to offset.”
It is a new service that Lenovo believes will be popular because it can be completed in one click of a mouse.
Paul Markham, category manager for professional services at the University of Birmingham’s procurement team, says: “The university is working hard on reducing its own carbon emissions. Developing sustainable initiatives with our key suppliers greatly contributes to carbon reduction across the university. Being fully aware of the impact of, for instance, staff use of cars or flights for business, allows us to look into offsetting with our supply chain.
“That can be very complicated and so the ability to offset new computer orders for their entire operational life in one place is definitely an attractive option we’re looking into.”
Lenovo believes that calculating the carbon cost of IT equipment throughout its life cycle has prompted computer makers to innovate, in order to reduce the CO2 impact of producing, packing, shipping and running their products.
At Lenovo this has meant that, in addition to reducing power requirements at factories and moving towards renewables, the novel approach of using bamboo in packaging has been adopted.
“Bamboo grows very quickly and greatly reduces the CO2 impact of our packaging compared to trees,” he says. “The outer cardboard box is obviously recyclable and so too is nearly all of the plastic used in the inner packaging.”
It is a welcome development, according to Thomas Hasson, category manager for IT in the University of Birmingham’s procurement department.
“I ordered a new laptop and there was way less packaging than I get from ordering even the smallest items from other IT suppliers,” he says.
“The use of bamboo is really innovative and it keeps computers really well protected but with nearly all the packaging still recyclable. That’s a really important consideration for us, we don’t want to be sending packaging to landfill.”
Colleges and universities are not only concerned about the packaging a computer arrives in, they are increasingly looking for environmentally-friendly ways of replacing older equipment.
This decommissioning process is another area where Stefan Larsen has seen a major shift over the past few years. Previously, the primary concern was for computers to be professionally wiped clean of all data. While that is still a major requirement for organisations, Larsen says it is now equalled by environmental considerations.
Hence Lenovo offers a pickup service that will recycle as much of a computer’s components as possible or, if feasible, wipe the data from the machine and give it a second life with another organisation.
Thomas Hasson says that recycling or reselling is good for the environment and can make financial sense, too. The University of Birmingham works with its IT supplier, called CDW, to recycle units being decommissioned. Devices are collected at the same time as new equipment is delivered meaning the impact on carbon emissions is managed.
