Celebrities wearing cool trainers might not come as much of a surprise.  What’s more interesting is Adidas’ public position on sustainability and how its products are now made. Through a partnership with environmental organisation, Parley for the Oceans – which dates back to 2015 – the business uses plastic collected from the sea to make some footwear, clothing and accessories. In 2022, close to 27 million shoes were made from the stuff, with Adidas also announcing it will only use recycled polyester across the board from 2024.

This idea of being creative, recycling and reusing – rather than making brand new – should set an example and be copied by the IT industry.

Take end user computing (EUC). It has become a major contributor to environmental pollution and climate change, directly and indirectly causing around 2% of global greenhouse gas emissions. 1% of this is due to the yearly manufacture of 460 million devices and the associated energy consumption by 4.2 billion users. This emits a whopping 556 million tons of CO2 and would require a forest the size of Argentina to remove from Earth’s atmosphere annually. A further 1% is attributed to the pollution associated with people commuting to access IT in the workplace.[1]

Other stats support this bleak picture. According to the Chartered Institution of Wastes Management, the UK produced the second largest amount of e-waste as a country in 2022 at 23.9 kg per capita. The study also showed that IT and telecoms e-waste almost doubled between 2008 (19,053 tonnes) to 2022 (37,631 tonnes estimated).

Displacement saves resources, money and the environment

We’re drowning in a tsunami of e-waste. One of the reasons for this is the technology refresh hamster wheel of upgrades which has become commonplace in the public and private sector. Most PCs or laptops are updated every 3 to 4 years as they break or OS vendors introduce major new releases requiring updated hardware to run.

Repurposing device hardware – a so-called displacement strategy – is a tried and tested way of avoiding this and has been at the heart of IGEL’s EUC strategy since 2011.

This approach extends the existing device’s useful lifespan and consequently causes the emissions of replacement devices – both from a manufacturing and shipping perspective – not to be required.  This is key given 83% of a device’s carbon footprint is created during manufacture.

This gains added impetus given the UK’s Climate Change Act 2008 includes an amendment to the Companies Act 2006 requiring all London Stock Exchange listed companies, large unquoted firms and limited liability partnerships to report their greenhouse gas emissions. Public sector organisations are also required to adopt sustainable IT practices in relation to Scope 2 and Scope 3 emissions.

Sadly, inertia exists.  Many IT departments simply do not know enough about sustainable ICT  purchasing or think that it requires more money to achieve, such research reveals that over a third simply take no action[2].  This is not only a dreadful for the environment but presents a significant missed opportunity for organisations to play a more effective role to address the climate emergency.

Mini case study: greenhouse gas abatement at a major UK financial institution 

Some firms, however, have grappled with the whole issue of how to consume IT in an environmentally optimum way. IT carbon footprint consultancy, PX³, has independently analyzed in detail an IGEL project at a well-known UK financial institution, the details and benefits of which are summarized below.

To enable work from home during the Covid crisis in 2020, the company faced the problem of how to provide secure remote working for 3,150 staff or 86% of employees. It had the choice of whether to buy new HP T640 thin client hardware and recycle old Dell OptiPlex 7010 desktops or repurpose the PCs replacing Windows 7 Pro with IGEL OS, thereby turning them into thin client devices.

The customer chose to repurpose each PC, and combined with an existing 24” monitor, mouse and keyboard, created an ‘office in a box’ which was delivered to staff at home. They then connected to a Citrix VDI environment to access their applications.

The costs and impact of buying new

If HP T640 thin clients had been used, the PX³ analysis shows that new hardware over a 5-year period would have generated 425,983 kg of CO2e. This comprises Scope 2 emissions for the duration, Scope 3 emissions for year 1 – the delivery of new devices – and then the recycling of these units at the end.  In more simple terms, the emissions are equivalent to 1,543,640 car miles and would have required 511 of mature forest to sequester the pollution.

From a cost perspective, given each HP device is circa £300, the cost to replace the estate of 3,150, would have totalled £945,000. Electricity charges over the period for all devices – based on an average price of £0.172 per kWh – are £47,462.  In summary, a total cost of ownership (TCO) of £992,462.

Repurposing the old – a better way

As the Dell OptiPlex 7010 PCs already existed, the reported Scope 3 emissions of 218 kgCO2e per device were already accounted for, such that retaining them added zero emissions.

Running the existing PCs with new IGEL OS installed and measuring energy consumption showed a 22% decrease in power compared to Windows 7 Pro.  Therefore, over the 5-year lifecycle extension period, the total carbon consumed by the Dell PCs totalled 169,945 kg of CO2e (Scope 2) and 0 kg of CO2e related to Scope 3. Again, in more simple terms, the emissions equate to 615,832 car miles or 204 of mature forest to sequester the pollution.

Turning to money, no purchase value is applied to existing Dell OptiPlex 7010 computers as they were accounted for in year one of purchase. However, buying 3,150 IGEL OS perpetual licenses cost £315,000.

Additionally, the utility charges for the same period were £137,644 for the Dell PCs based upon the same per kWh pricing of £0.172. This means a TCO attributed to the displacement strategy of £452,644.

 The financial and environmental payoff

 There’s a lot of data in this blog post. But to boil it down, a displacement strategy is clearly better, delivering:

 60% reduction in carbon footprint across a 5-year period by repurposing devices;

• Potential combined Scope 2 and 3 emissions dropping from 425,983 kgCO2e to 169,945 kgCO2e – equivalent to avoiding 927,808 car miles or the sequestering capacity of 307 forest acres.
• 55% drop in project costs from £992,462 to £452,644 over the 5-year period meaning the company saved an impressive £539,818.

Even with IGEL OS demanding less power than Windows, the analysis shows that energy consumption of the existing old Dell devices was 65% higher than the replacement HP thin clients.

However, the impact of the manufacturing emissions far outweighs the energy emissions gain from buying new; it would take an additional 17 years for this cross over to happen, by which time the Dell PCs would be practically prehistoric and definitely need recycling.

The knee jerk position in many IT departments is to throw away and buy new – just like a pair of trainers. It’s not necessary. We can reuse, reimagine and recycle hardware – easily doubling lifespan – by running applications, storage and compute in the cloud and not on the endpoint. That means the requirement to have the latest and greatest desktop is removed with only a lightweight OS which we provide needed to connect to modern VDI or DaaS workspaces from the likes of Microsoft, Amazon, Citrix and VMware.

And on top of this, the IGEL UMS management platform means one person can simply manage circa 20,000 devices from a single location resulting in fewer support engineers driving to site to do break/fix and therefore polluting less.  Which leads me back to the beginning theme of this blog and Run DMC loving Adidas.  IT staff should Run UMS. They’ll love IGEL, too.

To read the full report PX³ click here.

[1]Source: Dr. Justin Sutton-Parker, CEO of PX³ and a Research Fellow at the University of Warwick

[2]Source: Sutton-Parker

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Visiting the Maldives archipelago fits most people’s idea of paradise. Within the huge network of 26 atolls are 1,192 islands – some inhabited, others not – home to luxury resorts with beachside bungalows, the whitest of soft sand, shaded by palm trees, and an ocean teaming with wildlife.

What might come as a shock is that lurking in this idyllic bliss is the island of Thilafushi.  Close to the capital of Malé, it’s a municipal landfill – an artificial island of rubbish – where 330 tonnes of waste is delivered daily.  Even in one of the most beautiful corners of the world, garbage is creating an environmental catastrophe.

This also goes for e-waste, too.  Research shows it takes 190,000 litres of water to manufacture a single PC, with 85% of the carbon overhead generated during manufacture.

According to an Uptime Institute survey, only 28% of companies consider IT Asset Disposal [ITAD] a key part of their sustainability strategies. This means that most businesses don’t. The result is that they really have no idea how their equipment is actually dealt with and where components end up given there are so many third parties involved in the so-called ‘IT chain of custody’.  This means numerous firms have been inadvertently illegally dumping their IT, especially if an approved and accredited ITAD provider is not used.

IT charity is broken

For years, the developed world has been using low-income developing nations as a dumping ground for IT under the guise of charitable donations.  It is wholly wrong.  Millions of tons of IT waste is generated each year and the ‘west’ has created toxic places on Earth because of this.

Indeed, some 998 million pupils globally still suffer from the digital divide. They just don’t have access to secure and usable IT equipment which would help them boost their earning potential and enable themselves to get out of poverty.

But here we fail, too. Some institutions in West Africa report having hundreds of PCs at their schools.  The problem is that none of them work, such that they are then used as room dividers and even tables. The question of whether the computer technology actually works isn’t typically asked when a container is loaded and shipped.

Add to this the problem of data security. Again, this hasn’t really been addressed properly when it comes to giving away, retiring or recycling equipment. Morgan Stanley Smith Barney was recently fined $35m by the SEC for failing to wipe customer data off around 4,900 servers and hard drives as equipment was replaced

It’s not all doom and gloom – environmental pain is driving innovation

Whilst there is a huge amount of green washing as firms strive to meet ESG goals, there’s great behaviour, too.  Businesses are being inspired and audited by organisations such as Science Based Target Initiatives,  EcoVadis and Morningstar Sustainalytics who are doing a brilliant job at helping companies transition. EcoVadis and Sustainalytics are two ratings companies giving large enterprises bronze, silver, gold awards for their true and proven ESG activities and outcomes.

In addition, if we mine at the same current rates, it’s estimated that gold and silver will run out in circa 15 years and platinum and copper in around 30 years – key components used in the manufacture of electronic devices. However, the good news is that there is already enough out of the ground sitting dormant in electronic waste to keep us going if we moved to a circular economy and recycled it.

Businesses should be disposing of IT assets to end e-waste

So, what are the practical steps companies should take to reduce e-waste?

1. Ensure that the ITAD selected has the right up-to-date certifications.  They should be ADISA certified to standard 8.0 – it’s incredibly strict – along with and ISO 14001 and ISO 27001.
2. Avoid obvious ‘red flags’.  Any firm claiming to collect and recycle IT for free is either going bust or not meeting the above standards.
3. View IT as a product not waste. Many organisations don’t.  If it is seen as product, it can be collected, ethically refurbished and recycled, and put back into the circular economy. In fact, it can be monetized to generate (some) revenue for the company, too.
4. Large companies must have a sensible global outlook given pervasive international standards aren’t there yet and there is huge dissonance in local laws.  For example, there is limited point in a US firm selecting the lowest cost provider for off-shore ITAD– and feeling happy they have done enough – if the local firm then doesn’t recycle to US or EU/UK standards. That gratuitously and immorally passes the environmental buck elsewhere.  Close attention to detail must be paid to the whole IT recycling chain.
5. Recognise that whilst businesses have a responsibility to properly consume and dispose of corporate owned IT, so do individuals.  Most people have an old laptop and various phones sitting in draws and cupboards at home. We run a program called the ‘Urban Mine’ where employees of client firms can bring in their old devices and have the data securely wiped and the unit properly disposed of and recycled by the corporate ITAD.  We estimate that there’s about $65 million worth of recyclable metal salvageable from initiatives like this.
6. Consider working with an ethical IT asset disposal provider for all electronic and IT waste disposal management. Sun Screen IT’s ITAD partner is Centerprise International.  When they process end of life IT equipment from Sun Screen’s clients, they generously donate their margin to Sun Screen IT’s charitable foundation so that 100% of Sun Screen IT’s profits are used to help close the digital divide. Clients can also use one contract to manage all their IT recycling globally, safe in the knowledge that it meets the right standards.

By working effectively like this, companies can cut waste, honestly achieve their ESG agendas and take significant steps to the paradise of a greener future where IT isn’t a major polluter.

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Our mission is to enable sustainable IT. We do this by helping organizations reduce their carbon footprint by extending the useful life of their endpoint hardware. We also help to optimize resources across the IT infrastructure and reduce energy consumption.

Why is Sustainable IT So Important?

Across almost every industry, IT is a contributor to serious sustainability challenges. More than 57 million metric tons of e-waste were produced worldwide in 2021 alone. The production and use of new devices are compounding this problem. Just slowing down the use of new device purchases can offset a great deal of sustainability drain, not to mention the obvious CAPEX savings.

Consider for a moment that 83% of a device’s total carbon footprint is generated during the manufacturing process. If we simply slow down the adoption of new devices, it can have a tremendous effect on e-waste as well as our global carbon consumption.

Now let’s consider the effect of end user computing itself. Research has found that as much as 2.5% of our global emissions come from end user computing and 3% of the world’s power generation is consumed by end user computing devices. That is a significant tax on the Earth which we have the power to affect.

See more about the impact of devices on the global e-waste problem and how technology can help in this video:

IGEL’s Three Rs: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle  

At IGEL, we have taken our role in enabling sustainable IT to heart. As such, we’re focused on evangelizing responsible business practices to protect the environment. It’s a fundamental part of our policies and partnerships. At the core of our sustainability program are the interconnected principles of what we call the “Three Rs:” reducing, reusing, and recycling resources and products to lower IT’s impact on e-waste and the global carbon footprint. Following is our guidance for IT organizations that also wish to increase sustainability:

• Reduce – By focusing on making responsible choices for energy-efficient devices and optimizing the resources IT and end users use, we can reduce CO₂ emissions and conserve energy. Here we share the importance of choosing devices that have been responsibly manufactured, and enabling devices to reduce power consumption through software that is more efficient (such as with IGEL OS).
• Reuse – We encourage, and through IGEL technology also enable, the reuse of devices and resources enterprises already own. Aging devices can be given new life, so organizations can reduce the need to purchase new devices for longer, thus reducing e-waste and lowering the carbon impact of manufacturing new equipment.
• Recycle – IGEL also advocates the responsible management of IT asset disposal to reduce e-waste and the subsequent adverse effects on human health. By supporting social projects that reuse aging devices and partnering with services for responsible disposition, we are empowering IT sustainability.

Embracing a Culture of Sustainability Beyond Earth Day

Sustainability is an integral part of the IGEL vision, mission, and values. At our core, IGEL has the vision to transform the way the world works, creating better outcomes for people, organizations, and our planet.

Because this sustainability is at our core, we continue to build responsible partnerships and corporate social responsibility programs that underscore our values.

One such program is our involvement in the Plant for the Planet program. Here, we are taking action for a more sustainable future by planting and growing trees while conserving and restoring forest carbon sinks worldwide.

If your views match ours, we invite you to join us in planting and protecting trees. With our partners and customers, IGEL has already raised donations to plant 16,154 trees. We’re close to our 20,000-tree target.

If you’d like to join us in this incredible cause, learn more here. It’s a very meaningful way to celebrate Earth Day together.

The post Celebrating Earth Day by Enabling Sustainable IT appeared first on IGEL.

Research from Px3 shows that end-user computing (EUC) generates 1% of global greenhouse gas annual emissions by manufacturing 460 million devices and the associated energy consumed by 4.2 billion users. The use of efficient devices and modern IT infrastructures play a key role in our ability to make a real impact on reducing energy consumption.

Savvy and Cost-Effective IT Buying Decisions

An informed choice of device is critical for savvy procurement decisions that support energy efficiency requirements and policies. To guide IT buyers and consumers in the decision-making process, the Energy Star certification system and trusted ENERGY STAR label are designed to make it easier to identify which products hold a high standard for efficient energy use and reduced C02 emissions.

IGEL’s hardware partners HP, Lenovo, and LG have achieved Energy Star certification on many thin clients, PCs, and laptops. When businesses use energy-efficient products, they save on electricity which contributes to lower CO2 emissions and a reduced impact on the environment. In fact, research shows by running IGEL OS on an endpoint device that offers a small carbon footprint from both an embodied and use perspective, power consumption can be reduced by more than 22% up to 49%.

Reuse and Repurpose Devices to Optimize IT Resources

By extending the lifespan of existing devices, organizations can significantly reduce the number of emissions required to manufacture a new device. Research shows up to 83% of a device’s total carbon footprint is generated during manufacturing. Therefore, extending the industry standard four-year hardware refresh cycle by multiple years positively impacts reducing emissions in manufacturing and distribution. Further, installing the efficient IGEL OS to upgrade thin clients, PCs, and laptops to a unified, centrally managed and controlled workspace allows access to apps, data, and desktops securely and quickly from anywhere.

A Modern IT Infrastructure for Secure Hybrid Work

The flexibility and agility offered by cloud environments and technology ecosystems of compatible solutions also offer huge potential to further reduce CO2 emissions and energy consumption by decreasing dependencies on energy-hungry legacy data centers. Cloud computing enables organizations to offer their employees secure remote and hybrid work options which reduce daily commuting to the office or workplace, and further help to reduce energy use.

These are examples of how smart IT choices can help organizations reduce carbon footprint and energy consumption by choosing technology that optimizes IT resources, reuses hardware for longer, and supports secure hybrid work.

The post Make Smart IT Choices to Reuse Devices and Reduce Energy Consumption appeared first on IGEL.

Research shows the demand for environmentally sustainable business is growing across the world. Many consumers and organizations believe businesses bear as much responsibility for positive change as governments. As a result, organizations are increasingly looking toward fundamentally transforming themselves to help drive down carbon emissions, costs and to reflect the growing demands for environmentally sustainable business practices.

A study by Lancaster University and Small World Consulting Ltd found that IT equipment share of global greenhouse gas emissions could be around 2.1-3.9%. This means that the IT industry produces more green gas emissions than the aviation industry, which are around 2% of global emissions (link: https://www.lancaster.ac.uk/news/emissions-from-computing-and-ict-could-be-worse-than-previously-thought)

The good news is that there are technologies than can support sustainability such as Virtualized Windows Applications and Desktops and its supporting technologies. Virtualization when deployed with the right tools and solutions can not only reduce power and air conditioning requirements but also extend the useful life of aging laptop and PC hardware. Add to this collaboration tools with Unified Communications (UC) and you have a flexible hybrid working solution that has the potential to boost productivity while supporting sustainability. These technologies can not only help organizations drive down their direct power consumption but can also reduce the carbon emissions generated by the manufacturing of new devices – in addition to supporting a dramatic shift in working practice. They also support hot-desking strategies while providing access to secure flexible remote working. As a result, organizations can now leverage solutions and technology to deliver significant reductions in their carbon footprint – and deliver bottom-line value.

The changing focus

As organizations worldwide begin to face up to the increasing likelihood of government legislation on carbon emissions, there is a general acceptance that every aspect of the business needs to consider its carbon footprint – and of course, IT is a major contributor. Greener IT is not just about reassessing an organization’s IT infrastructure, it is also about its working practices. Could increased home or remote working be considered to reduce employee travel? How can video conferencing be strategically used to cut down travel to meetings? Can repurposing existing PC hardware extend its useful life and reduce the impact that new hardware creates? Should a hot-desking policy be used to reduce the volume of desktop infrastructure?

And of course, all these decisions must balance cost, security, flexibility, and the environment – but the underpinning business focus must be the bottom line. The good news is that many of the tools and techniques for improving the green status of the IT department will typically also cut costs significantly.

The virtual approach

In the past, the adoption of server virtualization across the data centers dramatically reduced power consumption reducing the number of physical machines and their associated air conditioning. Now organizations are considering following the same model in the office environment. The adoption of a virtual model has the potential to further drive down power consumption to save money and boost green credentials. By adopting Virtual Apps and Desktops and their complementary solutions, organizations can fundamentally transform working practices, increase flexibility, and further reduce costs.

The modern office

Given the cost and environmental benefits, it is little surprise that many organizations now have virtual apps and desktops firmly on the agenda. However, many have yet to recognize the many knock-on effects virtual apps and desktops can have on working practices. By combining virtualization with Unified Communications in the right way, organizations can truly transform the working environment for their employees, saving money, reducing the carbon footprint, and deliver a better experience for their employees.

By integrating the telephony solution into their collaboration solution, organizations can further reduce power consumption and costs – and significantly reduce their maintenance overhead. But this only works if the right technologies are selected and configured with careful consideration.

Virtual apps and desktops can also fundamentally transform the environmental impact of desktop support. Virtual apps and desktops can be supported remotely, significantly reducing the carbon emissions associated with sending staff for physical support. As a further benefit, this remote management also increases uptime, boosting employee productivity and drastically reducing costs.

How to implement flexible working while extending the life of devices

Extending the useful life of Laptops and PCs

By repurposing aging laptops and PCs, organizations can build a simple to use, easy-to-manage, secure access solution for their virtual environments. They no longer need to dispose of aging endpoint devices that still work – but can instead simply upgrade them to a compact secure OS (such as IGEL OS). Devices that do not have the power to support the latest Windows OS can leverage the Edge OS. The lightweight OS uses less endpoint CPU and local resources. As a result, even devices that are up to eight years old (including thin clients, laptops, and desktops) can be used to access virtual apps and desktops – including Windows 10/11, even if they were never able to run it natively. This simple to manage solution not only saves organizations the cost of major upgrades, but it also keeps older computers out of landfills and in use for much, much longer. A recent survey demonstrated that such a strategy, which extended the life of Windows-based PC for 2 additional years can help reduce 40% emissions per 1000 users. (CEBR study for Citrix: Page 14 )

Collaboration tools

An integrated collaboration solution within a virtual environment provides a great user experience too – but running these types of tools (such as Microsoft Teams) in a virtual environment can be problematic as they can have high resource requirements for the backend infrastructure. To mitigate this, the right choice of access endpoint is essential. The right access solution enables the strategic offloading of functions to the access device (such as audio or video calling). Choosing the right Edge OS (such as IGEL OS) results in an improved employee experience, often with lower backend hardware costs – while also enabling a great experience for IT to support the solution to keep it up-to-date and secure.

Virtual Apps and Desktops

By using Virtual Apps and Desktops, employees can work from home one or two days a week reducing the business commuting mileage and hence dramatically reducing carbon footprint.

Public Cloud

Whatever your choice of public cloud (e.g., AWS, Azure or GCP), moving VDI to a public cloud utilizes bigger and more efficient data centers which have great economies of scale and in some cases can even be carbon neutral.

Hot Desking

Consider deploying a hot-desk environment. With this type of solution, users not only gain immediate access to their data, regardless of the location from which it was last accessed, but also the collaboration technology which automatically transfers that user’s video and audio sessions to their current location. This enables employees to work anywhere in the building at any time, fundamentally improving space utilization and reducing waste.

Flexible Working

This integrated approach works not only in the office, but also supports far more cost-effective hybrid remote working as calls are automatically routed to the device – wherever it is.

Collaboration tools support the adoption of cross-departmental teams using video conferencing to reduce the need to travel to meetings. By reducing overall employee travel time, organizations can not only drive down the level of carbon emissions but also boost productivity and support strategies for improving employee work/life balance.

Security

The use of the edge OS architecture ensures that critical data is never held on the machine – users can securely use wi-fi or 4G/5G connections to access the corporate servers when outside the secure office environment. It can also further secure the environment by limiting the dangers of viruses (with the use of dedicated virtual browser solutions) and with no admin access to the local device, it is impossible to download and store files. And, with all documents automatically stored centrally, organizations can avoid the endemic problem of data loss caused by individuals opting to save their data locally, despite clear corporate policies to the contrary.

Conclusion

There is growing pressure on organizations to meet their environmental responsibilities, but environmentally sustainable business is about more than just reducing power consumption and scaling down the IT infrastructure. It is about supporting the employee to drive down emissions through flexible hybrid working, enabling collaboration and conferencing to reduce travel requirements.

Critically, with the right approach, environmentally sustainable business is not just about meeting targets and being seen to be green but adopting efficient, well-managed processes that deliver quantifiable benefits to the bottom line.

Capgemini’s Connected Workspace and Connected Collaboration portfolio of services provide a range of cloud workspace solutions that help you plan the right approach for your organization and create an environmentally sustainable workplace that reduces carbon footprint while enhancing total experience.

The post Environmentally Sustainable Workspace IT appeared first on IGEL.

Financial benefits

One of the best ways to save your business some money is in your office supplies and resources. Rather than enforcing strict policies about work computers, you can use the UYOD policy to promote more “WFX” environments. Let’s face it – sometimes work desktops can be a pain, but what if you can reap the same benefits via your existing devices or your users’ personal devices, all the while saving your company money? Sustainable tech does both. It saves the planet, saves resources, and extends the life of products, which saves you money in the end. By working with a provider who repurposes, not replaces, existing products and devices, you can help reduce your supply chain carbon footprint by up to 60%.

Consider the traditional lifespan of a PC as an example. It’s common for companies to perform a “hardware refresh” of employee systems every four to five years. But what if the lifecycle of PC hardware could be extended another two or three years – or eliminated all together by empowering users to use their own systems via secured access to corporate apps and data? That could save significant investment in new hardware (can be millions in larger enterprises), while also reducing the number of devices sent to landfill, manufacturing energy consumption, and the mining of natural resources and mineral elements used for chips and boards. That is extremely compelling during the current supply chain/chip shortages that have plagued so many industries.  Win – win – win!

Sustainable products

Businesses of all types should be working to reduce their overall global carbon footprint through their products and policies. This sustainability starts with reusing existing hardware, slashing emissions, reducing costs, extending the lifespan of devices, and adopting hybrid cloud strategies. To lower the carbon footprint, businesses can also adopt more virtual workforces and cloud environments. This goes hand in hand with the idea of UYOD. When a company empowers workers to remotely access their digital workspaces, they are in turn lowering the emissions it takes for commuting and lowering the energy they might all be using when in the office. And if and when new devices do need to be purchased, organizations can look at highly efficient, compact thin client devices whenever possible.

Flexibility

When the pandemic began almost two years ago, highly stressed companies had to quickly come up with contingency plans to keep their businesses operating and functional. For some, this meant taking a pause to figure out what was to come, for others this meant packing up their entire offices, work computers and systems in tow, to take home for the unforeseeable future. With a UYOD process in place, you’re already prepared for these changes.

Having employees use their own devices, while using your company’s cloud-delivered digital workspaces or desktop-as-a-service program, you are far more prepared for anything to come. In fact, even as some businesses are reopening offices and bringing their workforce back in, many are still opting for a hybrid work model that includes remote work, simply because of the flexibility it offers. Not only the ability to work from anywhere, but also the ability to connect from anywhere or anytime. Most work is no longer Monday through Friday, 9-5, so businesses that adopt remote working solutions offer their employees the ability to essentially set their own schedules. Instead of spending an hour on the bus to commute home from work, spend that hour finishing up a project or connecting virtually with your coworkers.

While there are many ways to make your IT more sustainable, each company has to find their own balance. Some businesses still require in-person working, as well as personal work computers, but there are always ways big and small to better your organization and industry at large via a sustainable UYOD program.  And that’s good for everyone.

Learn more about IGEL and sustainability here.

This article was written by Dan O’Farrell, Sr. Director of Product Marketing for IGEL, and first published in Green Tech IT News. 

The post How Sustainability is Changing the Tech Industry appeared first on IGEL.

Earning “green” can have other great advantages, besides lowering your greenhouse gas emissions and carbon footprint. It can also improve business continuity in a time where our supply chain is in gridlock and the chip shortage is stalling the availability of nearly everything electronic. It can also save you some serious money, all while keeping all of those toxic electronic waste scraps out of the landfill.

Consider these ways IGEL OS is helping the planet, and your business, and see if you too can get a “star” for your energy efficiency:

• Maintain Business Continuity

  • This is of particular importance this year as businesses reel from a supply chain crisis and chip shortage like never before. With two of the largest US ports seeing a 30% increase in the number of goods going through them, and 28% fewer workers to process the cargo, getting the electronic equipment you need to continue your business operations is very challenging. This can have an impact on business continuity, especially if you need new computing devices to keep your workforce productive. IGEL is helping to relieve the supply chain bottleneck by giving businesses a great solution to repurpose existing computing devices. IGEL OS can extend the life of existing endpoint devices by an average of two-to-three additional years, and sometimes much longer. That can mean less computer demand in the supply chain and greater business continuity for those that would have otherwise been awaiting new Microsoft Windows 10 or Windows 11-capable devices to keep employees productive.

• Save Money

  • Of course, without the need to purchase new devices comes a great boost to IT budgets. Budget which can be redeployed for other important strategic projects – even programs which can further enhance business sustainability and efficiency. For larger organizations, the CAPEX savings from bypassing the classic “hardware refresh” can be in the millions of dollars.

• Keep Scrap Out of Landfills

  • One of the biggest environmental challenges of our day is the excessive e-waste our societies produce. The World Health Organization characterized the volume of last year’s e-waste alone as weighing as much as 350 cruise ships. By repurposing and redeploying endpoint devices with IGEL OS we are helping to keep volumes of new devices out of the landfill and in continued use – also reducing the number of new devices that must be built accordingly.

• Progress Carbon Neutrality Goals

  • Yes, and of course, using IGEL reduces your greenhouse gas emissions and minimizes your carbon footprint. In fact, recent research from Px³ has quantified that using IGEL OS is capable of driving greenhouse gases down by 60% when used in displacement strategies, an additional 40% or more when aligned with remote working strategies, and between 22% and 49% in projected energy consumption reductions. Impressive results for a simple choice.

Not only are IGEL products Energy Star certified, at IGEL we take sustainability very seriously – for our business and yours. It’s IGEL’s vision to transform the way the world works with better outcomes for people, organizations, and our planet. Join our energy efficiency movement for a better, greener world.

Watch the IGEL video on sustainability with insights into how to avoid the PC refresh cycle and help to eliminate e-waste here:

The post Get a “Star” for Energy Efficiency while Maintaining Business Continuity appeared first on IGEL.

The UN is calling it the “Tsunami of E-Waste”. It’s the world’s fasted growing waste stream and is becoming a significant global environmental issue. Whether piled in the landfill or incinerated, improperly processed e-waste causes significant health risks to humans, as well as the environment around use, as dangerous toxins are released.

Consider that, according to Statista, 54 million metric tons (Mt) of e-waste was produced worldwide in 2019. To provide a sense of scale, 50 Mt is equivalent to 4,500 Eiffel towers – enough to cover an area the size or Manhattan (Global E-waste Monitor,2020). Small IT and telecommunications equipment make up 9% of the total amount of e-waste produced. Screen and monitor devices which include laptops make up 12% of all e-waste produced. The rest of e-waste produced is made up of large appliances such as air-conditioning units and washing machines, and small equipment such as cameras and toasters.

“While e-waste is a huge problem that spans multiple industries and complex products, businesses can do their part by incorporating circular economy solutions into their IT strategy,” says Brent Smiley, VP ITAD programs of Green4Good.

Less than 20% of global e-waste is responsibly managed. Irresponsibly managed e-waste is often shipped overseas where they are likely dumped, traded, or processed in an unregulated way contributing to environmental and health issues. The amount of e-waste produced per person in the US was 19.4kg in 2016. This number is likely higher in 2021 as devices are designed to be obsolete while we continue to increase the number of technology-based devices we have. In all, our end user computing impact on e-waste is significant… and IGEL is looking to help change that.

IGEL for a Cleaner, Greener World

Yes, there’s no denying that e-waste is an unavoidable byproduct of technology innovation. As organizations embrace new technology in pursuit of increased productivity, e-waste will result. But IGEL believes that with proper focus and diligence this e-waste can be reduced.

This is exactly why we’ve engaged with Green4Good. Green4Good helps organizations securely and responsibly dispose of their IT assets by converting assets into social good and environmental action.  To date, they’ve diverted more than 1,800,000 IT assets from landfills through leveraging a reuse model that gives devices a second life.

Green4Good also helps organizations get closer to reaching their carbon reduction goals. The program is the first in the world to generate verified carbon credits through the refurbishment and resale of corporate IT assets.

It’s the perfect recipe for circular End-of-First-Life Technology management that can have a significant positive effect for our environment.

In addition to partnering with Green4Good, IGEL further supports a cleaner, greener world by doing the following:

• Extending the PC Lifespan. IGEL OS extends the life of existing end user computing equipment by three to five years. By converting aging systems with IGEL OS, they become efficient cloud workspaces without investing in new systems – reducing the environmental impact of producing new devices while reducing e-waste through extending system life.
• Lowering Power Consumption. IGEL-powered endpoints consume less power. By connecting to the cloud for processing the endpoint is much more power-efficient, further reducing environmental drain.
• Enabling Remote Work. IGEL powers the new agile work movement, where users can work from anywhere they want. This simplifies and secures working from home so end users can reduce their carbon footprint by minimizing travel days into the office.

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The Green4Good program is an effective way to solve end-of-life IT asset disposition challenges, while donating cash and new technology to charity. To date, the program has raised over $3.3 million dollars and is supporting over 195 different charitable organizations from around the world.

When hardware is contributed to the Green4Good program – 90% of collected technology is securely remarketed for reuse while the remainder is responsibly recycled. That’s right, none of it goes into the landfill. Green4Good focuses on reuse first as it produces less waste and pollution when compared to recycling. And when you trade-in your unused hardware and equipment you can earn cash and carbon credits for end-of-life assets with the unique ability to offset your new purchases of IT equipment and make them carbon neutral.

Join us for a special Earth Day Webinar to learn more. Register today for the Combat the Tsunami of e-Waste with IGEL & Green4Good webinar on April 22 at 12 p.m. ET to join us in the fight against e-waste.

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In fact, enterprise IT is responsible for about 2.5% of all global greenhouse emissions. And specifically, end user computing (EUC) produces the CO₂ emissions equivalent to driving 10 million cars, 100,000 miles a year! If we were to offset these emissions naturally, it would require a dense forest over 20% the size of the United States.

But, with IGEL, IT organizations are finding new ways to become more energy efficient. In support of ENERGY STAR day today, I’d like to share 4 key ways IGEL is accelerating your journey to sustainability:

1. IGEL helps enable the shift of user workloads to carbon-neutral cloud environments. Microsoft Azure for example expects to be 100% energy renewable by 2025. By making the adoption of virtual desktops easier, more manageable and more secure, IGEL helps organizations consolidate their EUC resources into shared infrastructure that’s easier to power sustainably.
2. IGEL extends existing endpoint device lifespan by an average of two additional years, and in some cases much longer. By converting aging PCs with IGEL OS, organizations can unlock more value from their existing hardware. This reduces electronic waste. In fact, for every 1,000 laptops, as much as 40% of annual embodied emissions can be reduced.
3. IGEL hardware has a much smaller environmental footprint. If new endpoint hardware is required, the purchase of IGEL endpoints, such as the ENERGY STAR compliant IGEL UD3, enables organizations to select devices which put sustainability first. The UD3 for example uses up to 77% less electricity to produce, is built with 80% less hardware than traditional PCs and is built with 98% recyclable material, including less plastic, less paint and more sustainable product packaging.
4. IGEL supports a more sustainable remote workplace. By making remote work simpler and more secure, IGEL helps promote working from home options like the IGEL UD Pocket, which further reduce overall emissions. With IGEL, users can securely use their own devices for work, and IT can easily manage and support those devices using the IGEL Universal Management Suite.

In celebration of ENERGY STAR day, IGEL is reminding enterprise IT teams that reducing your organization’s environmental footprint doesn’t have to compromise user productivity or satisfaction. You can accelerate your journey to sustainable IT with IGEL. Learn more in this infographic: Accelerate Your Journey to Sustainable IT with IGEL.

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