Green Computing: Part 1

In the first of two articles looking at the environmental impact of business computing, IT PRO looks at the resurgent market for recycling and refurbishing PCs for business.

By Gary Flood, 17 Jan 2007 at 16:07

gallery

If these figures are right, it means there has been something of a quiet revolution in attitudes to use of refurbished equipment, as a previous survey by the same company in 2005 identified only 10 per cent of companies compared to the current 25 per cent had bought more than one refurbished item. Plus, there seems to have been a rapid growth in formal policies being in place. Presumably, one can put this down to the rise in the green agenda in IT circles in the past few months - as well as the IT director (and financial director) having an ever-present need to watch the bottom line.

Refurbishing pitfalls

Suppliers of refurbished kit - the majors (IBM etc) as well as some resellers - have to be careful about a few things, though. Software licences are basically impossible to pass on from one customer to another this way, so hardware has to be boiled dry of any code before being put on the market (so don't think you can craftily pick up Oracle or SAP business systems this way).

Secondly, it's vital that the customer doesn't just get someone else's box - specialist refurbished suppliers will dismantle the systems and reconfigure them for your needs, just like a brand new build-to-order system. Also ensure that all such material has been fully tested and is under warranty.

If these goals are met, which they should be when working with a reputable supplier, the rewards can be significant: World Data itself claims refurbished IT equipment can offer up to 60 per cent savings on equivalent new hardware investment.

Of course it's only the supplier's claim, but World Data Products offers an example of an unnamed 'multi-billion pound organisation' which has reported seven to one asset recovery ratio through the IT refurbishment route, i.e. each pound it gets back through selling on its old material translates to £7 of 'turnover'.

Another factor in all this is of course the secret truth that many an IT manager has spent time on eBay trying to track down cheap kit to plug a gap, stay within budget or keep a legacy system going which is out of warranty and not covered by a support contract. This might not be as dramatic as London Underground's staff, which in December 2004 were exposed by the BBC for using the online auction site to source missing bits for its infrastructure - but many of us have been there.

Forge says it's definitely time more IT directors looked at the refurbished route, given the potential for savings in cash flow, capital expenditure and support. Plus, the green angle: "Reusing what we have is a better long-term way of managing resources, and this way we won't be sending quite so much to China to be broken up."

"Over 50 per cent of a piece of hardware's carbon footprint is created at the moment of manufacture," adds Will Richardson, WDPI's European Sales Manager. "Use that kit for a longer period of time and you minimise that footprint growing. We expect a massive rise in interest in asset recovery and reuse as a result."