Sustainable Procurement & CSR News - ICT Industry

Apple will use 100% recycled cobalt in batteries by 2025. It already uses large quantities of recycled rare earths and tungsten in products and has begun using AR to support disassembly.

Humans are facing an existential crisis in climate change. We are also facing a crisis of collective action. As a species, we have every reason to slow the rise of global temperatures, but taking steps to cut carbon emissions is generally not in the short-term interest of individuals, companies, or countries. Where does that leave IT organizations?

IT systems all around the world consume ever-increasing amounts of electric power, making them a critical factor in increasing carbon emissions. Many people in the industry are acutely aware of IT's climate impact and want to see it reduced, but minimizing IT's carbon footprint will entail a cost that many small businesses and multinational corporations are reluctant to bear.

Curious about what might incentivize a shift to greener tech, I spoke to IT leaders who are pushing back on climate change. I found people working at every level of organizational leadership—from the top down to the bottom up—and pursuing a variety of strategies to reduce carbon consumption in company products and business models.

Sustainable or green IT is not new. In fact, it has been a topic of discussion among IT leaders for decades. But the concept of sustainability in general, which the United Nations defines as “meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs,” is something people and organizations are prioritizing more than ever — and for good reason.

Concerns about the environment and climate change are front and center among world leaders, environmental advocacy groups, and society at large. Corporate executives and boards want their organizations to do their part — or at least be perceived as doing their part — to help.

The push for better environmental, social, and governance (ESG) initiatives has taken a high priority at many organizations, and this encompasses more efficient uses of technology.

- To achieve net zero emissions by 2050; Joins RE100 initiative
- Energy- and resource-efficient products to empower consumers for sustainable living
- To invest in and develop innovative technologies for a better planet; Apply carbon capture and clean air technology

During the Samsung Unpacked event on Tuesday, Samsung announced it's going more green in its new Galaxy products with more recycled materials.

The company said 90% of Galaxy devices launched/launching this year include at least one component made of recycled material. The new Galaxy Z series announced during the event contain eco-conscious materials like repurposed fishing nets. The Galaxy Buds2 Pro are even more eco-friendly, as 90% of the plastic components are made with recycled materials.

There are two kinds of companies that talk about sustainability. One kind treats it as a marketing tool with little substance; the other treats it more like a religion. Dell’s initial effort was basically, “if you buy a product, we’ll plant a tree.” It sounds nice, but is also a clear indicator it’s just giving this important topic lip service. Since then, Dell has embraced its ESG commitment, funded it, and created showcases of its efforts — like Concept Luna, the sustainable design project that could redefine the technology market and make it far greener. 

Apple has set a public goal to go completely carbon neutral in its supply chain by 2030, and it’s out with an update on those efforts today. According to Apple, its manufacturing partners now support over 13 gigawatts of renewable electricity around the world, while more than 250 Apple suppliers are committed to relying completely on renewable energy by 2030.

In a press release today, Apple gave an update on its efforts to go fully carbon neutral by 2030. For its global corporate emissions, Apple is already carbon neutral. It supports 1.5 gigawatts of renewable electricity around the world to power all corporate offices, data centers, and retail stores. It has also invested in 500 megawatts of solar and wind in China and Japan to address upstream supply chain emissions.

Apple’s efforts are now largely focused on its supply chain and manufacturing partners. Apple says that more than 40 of its manufacturing partners have joined the Apple Supplier Clean Energy Program within the last year, making for a total of over 250 suppliers across 28 countries.

The company is also offering a “Clean Energy Academy” for its partners to help “identify and implement solutions for clean energy and carbon reductions.”

Despite the common belief that data center operations and the cloud generate information technology’s most significant environmental impacts, the embodied carbon of endpoint devices accounts for nearly half of overall IT greenhouse gas emissions in most enterprises.

As digital business accelerates, the use of corporate endpoints and peripherals continues to grow exponentially. Consequently, managing the environmental sustainability of end-user equipment is becoming a core responsibility and priority for IT leaders.

Yet many of them don’t realize that the decisions they make at every step of the device life cycle have a significant impact on IT sustainability. In addition to supporting corporate environmental, social and governance goals, strategic sustainability decisions can also provide benefits such as cost savings, modernization and infrastructure resilience.

The key to harnessing such benefits is to use the circular economy as a guiding framework for device sustainability. Here are the steps that IT leaders can take to rationalize, retain and restructure the use of devices continually, from procurement though disposal, in a way that equally serves the planet, engages employees and supports the business.

Apple said Tuesday that it is urging suppliers to vastly reduce greenhouse gas emissions as the tech giant works to make its entire supply chain carbon neutral by 2030. 
The company is asking manufacturers to decarbonize Apple-related operations by taking steps such as running on 100% renewable electricity. Apple will track progress through yearly audits.
As part of the company’s overarching sustainability goals, Apple also announced plans to construct large-scale solar and wind projects in Europe with projects ranging between 30 and 300 megawatts. The goal of the projects is to produce enough renewable energy to power all devices on the continent with low-carbon electricity.

Circular from the start
Startups have the opportunity to build businesses based around the circular economy from the start of their lifecycle. 

“Startups have the ability to build their businesses from scratch, truly disrupt the status quo and educate both consumers and businesses, in the process”

“Startups play a crucial role in helping the economy transition to the circular economy, because they don’t have the red tape or consumer expectations big tech does,” says Thibaud Hug De Larauze, cofounder and CEO of scaleup Back Market. “They have the ability to build their businesses from scratch, truly disrupt the status quo, and educate both consumers and businesses in the process.”

Back Market, founded in 2014, says it’s now the globe’s biggest online marketplace for refurbished devices and appliances, with over 6m users and over €1bn raised. 

According to figures cited by De Larauze, as much as 70% of existing toxic waste is due to disposed electronics, while only 12.5% is recycled. 

De Larauze says big tech is always looking for the new — offering expensive products that they want consumers to purchase on a yearly, or biennial basis. That creates two problems for customers: affordability and impact on the environment. 

“Refurbished technology can solve both of these problems. Not only are renewed devices much more affordable, they are key to creating a circular economy and drastically reducing the impact of technology on the environment,” says De Laurauze. 

This impact of technology and electronic devices can also be mitigated by renting equipment rather than purchasing it. This is particularly useful for smaller businesses and startups that may not know what equipment they need as they begin their journey. 

The last few years have seen multiple disruptions in the supply chain in many industries. One of the key technologies that many fingers have pointed to is the semiconductor technology.  As products in all industries become more electronics based, semiconductors play a key role since no end system could function today without these chips. Additionally, few, if any, complex chips are available from multiple suppliers, thus creating strong dependencies on a single source of supply. Any disruption in the chip manufacturing process, from fabrication lines to packaging to testing to shipping can impact product delivery.

Externally influenced supply chain disruptions resulting from geopolitical issues, a pandemic, labor difficulties, and unbridled fluctuations in demand make it difficult to bring products to market on time and within budget. However, as Stephen Chavez of Siemens Digital Industries Software explains, businesses can manage risk and plan for a more resilient future by applying a three-phased solution to enable supply-chain resilience for electronic systems design (see the figure). The key focus of this solution is digital transformation, implementing a “shift-left” or “outside-in” approach to a workflow that is inherently siloed, disconnected, and inefficient.

Sony has announced that it is accelerating its goal of achieving carbon neutrality across all of its divisions by 10 years, from the initial goal of doing so by 2040 with a new target of 2030.

The company also plans to gain carbon neutrality across its entire value chain — every company it works with — by 2040, a reduction of time from its previous goal of 2050.

Sony says it has pursued environmental initiatives since the early 1990s, but in 2010 announced its “Road to Zero” long-term environmental plan to help realize a sustainable society by achieving a zero environmental footprint throughout the life cycle of Sony’s products and business activities by the year 2050.

Choose's patented tech can hold a variety of liquids and represents an alternative to plastic bottles. "There are more than 150 million tons of single-use plastics produced each year," said the printer and laptop maker, "and HP intends to disrupt this market with fiber-based, 100 per cent plastic-free packaging."