8. Apply circular thinking to hardware

ICT hardware has very significant ‘embodied’ environmental impacts (coming from sourcing of raw materials, manufacture, distribution and disposal at the end of life), that go beyond carbon to include things like water use, ozone depletion, human and eco-system toxicity, acidification, eutrophication, resource depletion, deforestation, bio-diversity loss and land use change.

Applying the principles of 'Circular Economy' to hardware means sharing, leasing, reusing, repairing, and refurbishing to extend the life of this equipment, and then recycling it at the end of its life.

8a. Minimise the full lifecycle impacts of equipment used by the service

Maximise the lifespan of the equipment used by your system or service, and use remanufactured or recycled technology where possible. Increasing lifespan reduces the need for new equipment, thereby reducing these impacts.

Lifecycle phases

Alpha Beta

Actions

(i) Use remanufactured equipment where possible

If your service purchases physical equipment or infrastructure, then use remanufactured or recycled technology where possible to avoid the need for purchasing new and thus saving on embodied impacts.

(ii) Maximise the lifespan of hardware used by the service

Maintain and manage equipment to increasing the lifespan of hardware - this reduces the need for its replacement.

(iii) Have a plan for end of life

Plan to retire all service equipment. When assessing options for disposal, you should consider:

Are sustainable disposal options available, such as buy-back schemes?
Can other projects or programmes within government reuse the equipment?
Can the non-reusable equipment be recycled?

Measurement

Product Carbon Footprint

A Product Carbon Footprint (PCF) focuses specifically on global warming potential (GWP) and measures it across all phases of a product’s life.

Lifecycle Assessment

A Lifecycle Assessment (LCA) provides a broader assessment that incorporates a range of potential environmental impact categories including water consumption, acidification, ozone depletion, resource depletion and carbon.

8b. Support user device longevity

Avoid development or use of software or technological requirements that will encourage 'technology-induced obsolescence' - users to purchase new or more digital devices. So that users aren’t encouraged to throw away working technology, it’s imperative that developers create new software that is backward compatible with existing devices.

Backward Compatibility, Spiceworks