Moving to remanufactured laptops could save the UK a million tonnes of carbon and £1bn a year, says Circular Computing

Because the reconditioned units reuse much of the original device, emissions, water and raw materials are significantly reduced, with costs 40 per cent less

If all businesses in the UK used refurbished laptops instead of buying new, they could save almost £1 billion per year and reduce carbon emissions by one million tons annually over the next nine years.

That's according to Portsmouth-based vendor Circular Computing, which specialises in remanufacturing and reselling enterprise laptops to businesses, education and the public sector.

Remanufacturing, according to British Standard BS 8887-211, means: 'returning a product to at least its original performance with a warranty that is equivalent or better than that of the newly manufactured product'. Circular Computing claims its remanufactured machines offer 97 per cent of the performance of a new device.

Because the reconditioned units reuse much of the original device, embedded emissions, water use and raw material requirements are significantly reduced compared with new equipment, and the devices are about 40 per cent cheaper, the company says.

According to Circular Computing's calculations, by moving completely to remanufactured devices UK businesses would reduce carbon emissions by of nine million tons and water usage by 5.4 trillion litres by 2030, with financial savings amounting to an estimated £7.7 billion.

The UK recently set out ambitious goals for the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, with the aim of cutting emissions by 68 per cent against 1990 levels by 2030, reaching net-zero by 2050.

For many organisations, the first step in complying with the new regulations will involve reducing their own energy use in buildings and transport, but this will need to be followed by attention to their supply chains, the so-called Scope 3 emissions, which is a more complex area.

A strategy of purchasing remanufactured kit where possible constitutes an important and relatively straightforward way of reducing supply chain emissions, said Steve Haskew, head of sustainability and social leadership at Circular Computing, noting that current laptop procurement practices are often characterised by inefficiency and waste.

"We realised that significant quantities of laptops were being bought by businesses on increasingly arbitrary, often three-year buying cycles. Devices weren't seeing significant performance improvements between cycles, and serviceable laptops were being discarded unnecessarily. Indeed, every day some 160,000 laptops are disposed of in the EU alone, creating a worsening e-waste crisis," Haskew said.

"I'd encourage all organisations looking to reduce their environmental impact to interrogate their IT procurement and see if they can make it more sustainable, because IT shouldn't cost the Earth."