Print.IT Reseller - issue 86

SUSTAINABILITY 01732 759725 46 Sustainable IT specialist, Circular Computing has signed a new agreement with Ingram Micro which will provide resellers and customers with easy access to carbon neutral, remanufactured Dell, HP and Lenovo laptops Carbon neutral Resource and emissions savings For every remanufactured laptop Circular Computing sells, 316kg of CO 2 emissions and 190,000 litres of water use are saved, and 1,200kg of mining minerals is prevented versus the equivalent sale of a new machine. The resource and emissions savings businesses can achieve by opting for remanufactured IT, are significant. Research shows that UK businesses could save £7.7 billion over the next nine years by buying remanufactured laptops instead of brand new devices. The move would also see carbon emissions reductions of nine million tons and 5.4 trillion litres less water usage – 10 per cent of the volume of the North Sea – over the same period. If all businesses in the UK elected to move to remanufactured devices, the reduction in emissions by 2030 – when progress against the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) will be reviewed – would be equivalent to taking 193,002 cars off of the roads for a year. Commenting on the new partnership, Michael Farrah, Senior Commercial Director, Ingram Micro said: “We are thrilled to be partnering with Circular Computing, not only so we can offer our customers best-in-class remanufactured laptops, but also so we can offer a genuinely sustainable solution for the provision of IT equipment. “Sustainability is high on the agenda in the IT industry and we feel that this partnership can be a significant contributor towards improving sustainability and reinforcing the benefits of the circular economy.” Carbon neutral Because remanufacturing laptops reuses much of the original device, the emissions, water use, and resources needing to be mined are significantly reduced versus net new equipment. Furthermore, Circular Computing also plants five trees in the buyer’s name for every laptop sold – making each purchase carbon neutral. The advantages remanufactured laptops provide are not limited to sustainability though – they also cost up to 40 per cent less than new equivalents. Rod Neale, Founder of Circular Computing, added: “We are delighted to be joining forces with a giant of the IT industry to offer our product to a much wider network of companies and organisations. For many years, we focused on creating the right product as we knew offering reliability and high performance, alongside a carbon neutral laptop, was crucial to its success. We now need to let the world know about it and challenge IT leaders to rethink their procurement strategy.” Circular Computing’s pioneering work in remanufacturing has not gone unnoticed, with the company invited to join Scaler, the Atos Accelerator programme in recognition of its achievements to date. The programme, which includes 20 start-ups with a focus on decarbonisation and digital security, will help the sustainable IT firm continue to grow and develop its business as sustainability becomes an increasingly important consideration for the global economy and businesses operating within it. www.circularcomputing.com Portsmouth-based Circular Computing has invested in years of research and development in order to deliver remanufactured laptops which are as reliable as new laptops and produced in their thousands to the same high standard of quality. Whilst refurbishing gets an old laptop into working order, remanufacturing is the process of returning the laptop to its original performance, with a warranty that is equivalent to when it was purchased new. In other words, remanufacturing is building a second hand laptop that feels brand new, but without the associated costs. Unlike refurbished IT equipment, which, according to Circular Computing, can be inconsistent and unreliable, depending on the provider, remanufactured laptops go through a rigorous 300-step process and quality control procedures to ensure they meet the needs of enterprise users and have been proven to perform at 97 per cent of equivalent new devices. Circular Computing reuses 99 per cent of the original materials to remanufacture a laptop and the last 1 per cent goes into recycling, where it is transformed into pallets. Fully qualified technicians remanufacture to BS 8887 standards within the company’s purpose- built state of the art production facility. ISO 9001 accredited processes means it can guarantee consistent quality of the same model in large volumes and, with comprehensive cosmetic detailing, every laptop is refinished to exacting quality standards.