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Sustainability, sustainability, sustainability. A 14-letter word which probably had no relevance in your life about 10 years ago but now surrounds us all like pesky mosquitoes buzzing in our ears. But how can we bring sustainability into IT and companies? IT is harmless, right? It can’t emit greenhouse gases, it can’t increase global warming. Yes it can. A single phone has, on average, a carbon footprint of around 60 kg. This includes manufacturing, transporting, and eventually it being mercilessly tossed away when it no longer serves any purpose to its owner as if it were dirt under one’s feet. So just imagine, if a single device has a carbon footprint of 60kg, almost 430 times its own weight, how much the carbon footprint of the entire IT industry must be.
Most organisations have more user devices given to employees etc. than data centres and it turns out that these devices produce 1.5 to 2 times more carbon than data centres. What’s worse is that in order to maintain high-speed functioning of the organisation, companies frequently replace devices used within the company so that employees don’t have to deal with slow machines, staring at that blue loading circle for hours and silently cursing in their heads. In fact, on average, companies replace smartphones every two years and laptops every four years. Now, this isn’t just a handful of devices that can be counted on one hand, this is the entire collection of devices within the company including both within the premises as well as personally given to employees. It would be a complete joke to consider this vicious cycle of discarding sustainable, so what can be done to ensure sustainability without forgetting quality?
A viable solution is for companies to invest in onsite engineers. Not only can they be there so employees can solve any instant problems with their devices in case there are any emergency issues but each year there should be a dedicated day or book-in session where all employees bring in their devices and allow the engineers to do a quick check-up of all devices as well as work with the owners of the device to clear any cache that could be slowing the device down without erasing anything important to the employee. You could consider this as an MOT-like service where you bring in your car and make sure it is fit to drive without causing any problems, or a normal GP check-up where you bring in yourself and make sure your body is fit to survive! This would act to ensure the longevity of each device and resolve any issues on the spot so they don’t build up and cause the device to stop working earlier than it could have, therefore increasing the life span of all devices and reducing the frequency of device replacement.