Companies and public sector organisations are refreshing
their desktop systems too often, leading to high levels of waste
and huge carbon footprints, according to speakers at GovNet'sGovernment IT Goes
Greenconference yesterday.
While using lower-energy computers may be good for the
environment, the high turnover of IT in many companies is leading
to a glut of toxic waste that recycling agencies are finding
increasingly hard to cope with.
More greenhouse gases are produced during the manufacture of
technology than during its use, so campaigners are urging companies
and consumers to buy less of it.
Experts are urging companies to "sweat" their IT for longer, and
to take the costs of disposal and recycling into account when they
buy equipment.
Jonathon Porritt, director of Forum for the Future, said, "Every
year there £14bn worth of public spending on IT across government.
A lot of that is churn of perfectly adequate IT that is replaced
long before its sell by date. This is a policy that suits the
business case of big suppliers."
He added that the practise of sweating IT assets for longer
would become more necessary in the public sector, as "over the next
five years that £14bn will be put under a microscope".
Malcolm Watson, general manager of IT recycling company Remploy
e-cycle, said that buying energy efficient machines is not enough,
because too many companies are still not realising how much IT they
are dumping. "They don't think about the whole lifecycle," he said.
"They don't realise they have got to put money aside for disposal
at the procurement stage. Some organisations have yet to wake up.
There is a whole shift of culture needed around the supply
chain."
Some government departments, such as the Department for Work and
Pensions, refresh their IT every five years instead of every three
years.
Chris Chant, CIO at the Department for Culture, Media and Sport,
said, "There's buying efficient equipment, but then there's not
using equipment that you don't need to use. We need to think about
both sides of the equation."