How Tech Companies Can Become More Sustainable

The world environment is now facing challenges like never before: climate change, loss of biodiversity, resources scarcity, health issues and the list goes on.

The role of the technology industry in sustainable development is a double-edged sword. On one hand, technology significantly improves the standards of living, financial prosperity and can continue to expand the knowledge of billions of people. On the other hand, the production processes require the extraction of resources which some are from rare materials and its also leading to water, soil, and air pollution.

As technology is a fast-growing industry, companies have a huge role to play in contributing to sustainable development. As arduous as it may sound to start making changes, improving and changing the habits and processes step by step is the best way for a company to move forward, slowly but surely from the norm to an eco-friendly one.

Let’s have a closer look at how a tech company can adopt a greener culture by overcoming the two main factors of pollution caused in this industry: E-Waste and Energy.

Breaking Down E-Waste With The 3R Concept

Tech companies are often the first ones that set the standards for the latest trends and technologies in their workforce commonly in providing uber cool environment. In fact, that concept is one of the attraction factors that lead to talents growth, especially among millennials. Yet, in its relentless pursuit towards innovation and providing the necessaries for its staff, generally, tech companies never even heard of the “3R” concept.

The ‘3R’ concept; Reduce — Reuse — Recycle, would allow any companies to think of the best approach to handle their electronic material.

Reduce

Did you know it takes 240kg of fossil fuel, 22kg of chemicals, and 1.5 tonnes of water to manufacture just one computer and a monitor? (source: UN). Additionally, over 2 billion computers are being sold every year (source: Worldometers 2015). That’s quite a lot of resources needed then, isn’t it?

So, what can your company do? If you don’t have it yet, you can start by creating an inventory list of all your electronic devices. Monitor them with as much details as you can: category, usage, purchase date, shelf life, maintenance details, pricing (item and maintenance). Run regular audits in order to assess the quality of your IT equipment and plan if part of it has to be replaced.

When you need to buy a new electronic device, think wisely. First of all, assess the real needs of the company. Let’s imagine that an office of 20 people has 5 printers and one of the printers breaks down. It’s time to evaluate if the 5 printers were an absolute necessity or if the office could run with 4.

If your assessment shows that you really need to buy a new equipment, compare wisely the price VS the quality. While it can be tempting to buy the cheapest price in the short term, bad quality and lower shelf life might cost you even more in the long run (money and time). Opt for the best price-quality you can find or consider renting your electronic devices such as printers, computers, projectors, scanners, TVs, etc. One of the advantages of this last option is that you are not tied up with your electronics. Therefore, you can upgrade it whenever you want. see more