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Interview: Lenovo’s Mary Jacques on combining environmental sustainability with circularity
The Hong Kong-headquartered hardware supplier remains serious about tackling climate change – and achieving results, including Scope 3 emissions reduction
For Lenovo executive director of global environmental, social and governance (ESG) and regulatory compliance Mary Jacques, driving hardware innovation at Lenovo has been front and centre of its environmental sustainability initiatives along the road to net zero – with Scope 3 emissions “by far” having the greatest impact.
And then there is the use of sold products and purchase of goods and services, Jacques says: “We didn’t call it circularity until 5-10 years ago, but it’s part of our DNA.”
As of 2024-5, Scope 3 comprised about 99% of Lenovo’s emissions, with 59% downstream sold products or end of life. Scope 1 direct emissions were just 0.03% of the company’s carbon footprint, while Scope 2 consisted of power, heating and cooling at 0.07%.
Lenovo is “very focused” on climate change-related measures, which is as its customers and suppliers expect, says Jacques. Her approach is about tackling the challenges in a “serious and credible” manner, doing the homework up front to align with the rigour of science-based targets and the supplier’s five-year key performance indicators (KPIs), underneath which also sit contributory annual targets and objectives, as well as developing a strong business case for it all.
Achieving all that means developing a “common language” for partners and suppliers that facilitates “top-down and bottom-up” support for planning and execution towards those goals, she says, adding: “We’ve learned a lot in the process.”
Lenovo’s global ISO14001:2015 certified environmental management system targets environmental elements of its operations, including product design, development, manufacturing, distribution, fulfilment and internal repairs of its hardware, accessories and network equipment. Initially, circularity at Lenovo focused strongly on product recycling and end-of-life take-back programmes. Yet the need grew to better understand those impacts as well as learn how to use recycled materials.
“I’m super proud that when we do this, we test it and then deploy it out across a lot of products. The results speak for themselves – we’ve used about 57 million kg of post-consumer recycled content since we started measuring it,” Jacques says.
Closed-loop recycled content use began in 2017, with around 30 million kg processed so far. That helps improve sustainability across multiple products and builds volume with suppliers. Circularity today is no longer just a materials play, increasingly considering repairability and product useful life from a customer perspective as well versus sustainability goals. It is not just about hardware but requires thought about compute services or devices and infrastructure provided as services.
“Our PC organisation came up with the REAL model: responsible design, ethical materials, accountable models and life-cycle intelligence,” Jacques says. “It’s about how we design the products and choose the right materials, and how we deliver product to our customers. It’s about better understanding the impact of all those choices and making sure we make intelligent choices.”
Jacques leads a global team of around 50 people, with roughly 40 focused on sustainability and ESG, and the rest on product compliance, spanning North and Latin America, EMEA, China and South-East Asia. Included are Lenovo’s corporate experts in areas such as climate change, circular economy, product carbon footprints, and ESG disclosures. Collaboration with peers across Lenovo covers related areas from social responsibility and ethics to privacy and security.
“We combine deep technical expertise, including several PhDs, with strong business acumen for a highly effective mix,” she says. “We’re currently leading the development of Lenovo’s next generation of long-term ESG KPIs for 2030, marching with determination towards net-zero in 2050.”
“[The REAL model is] about how we design the products and choose the right materials, and how we deliver product to our customers”
Mary Jacques, Lenovo
Lenovo has committed to halving Scopes 1 and 2 by 2030 from 2018-19 emissions, and cutting Scope 3 from use of sold products by an average of 35% versus comparable products and from upstream transportation and distribution 25% per tonne-km of transported product.
From purchased goods and services, the target is a 66.5% Scope 3 reduction per $1m of gross product, within the same timeframe. Overall, the firm is targeting to emit 90% fewer emissions in 2050 than it did in 2018.
All these targets remain on track and consistent with staying under 1.5ºC of average temperature rise globally compared to the pre-industrial period, according to its full-year 2024-25 reporting.
By full-year 2025-26, Lenovo expects its energy use to be 90% renewables. So far, Lenovo has installed 34.5MW of its own solar electric across global facilities. It has 100% renewables purchasing agreements at Tianjin and Hungary campuses, and piloted renewable-energy group purchasing in Guangdong in 2024 for supplier factories in southern China. Over time, the plan is to add more renewables, including into grids.
Other projects Jacques’ team influenced include Lenovo’s Intelligent Sustainability Solutions Advisor (LISSA) IT emissions estimator and an ESG Navigator tool for monitoring ESG metrics at factories.
Today, nearly every part of Lenovo contributes to the sustainability mission. Earlier in her career, Jacques’ team led most initiatives, identifying projects, finding partners and driving progress from concept to execution. But now, sustainability is deeply embedded; teams across the business proactively lead their own efforts.
Part of that has come from efforts to establish a formal governance structure that connected the corporate ESG team with all those separate parts of Lenovo. The board oversees ESG performance and reporting, supported by a chief corporate responsibility officer and several management committees, including a dedicated ESG Executive Oversight Committee that guides strategy and champions initiatives.
“My team’s role is to ensure we have the right overall strategy, focusing on what matters most to Lenovo, our customers, investors and communities. We provide expertise to evaluate project impact, measure results, support reporting and serve as a sounding board for new product features and partnerships,” says Jacques. “I’m really glad that there continues to be a focus on sustainability, because it remains important.”
Putting attention on the right thing
Jacques says childhood outdoor experiences may have influenced her interest in all things environmental. Born outside Detroit, she spent much of her life in North Carolina, which she describes as “a great place, a green space anchored by the triangle of three large research institutions” with a strong focus on tech.
She considers herself fortunate that she has been able to grow professionally while driving environmental initiatives throughout her career. What began with an enthusiasm for science and maths was followed by undergraduate studies in environmental science and policy, and then a masters in resource economics at graduate school.
“The policy aspects really spoke to me – marrying the technical with an understanding of the science behind it, and being able to quantify it got my math interest. Then you also have to be able to influence not just policymakers but internal stakeholders to take certain actions and to recognise risks and benefits or opportunities,” Jacques says.
If you can’t back a sustainability decision with solid science and accounting, you can’t understand your impacts or where to make a difference. Much attention and internal resource can be put on the wrong thing, she points out.
Jacques started working on environmental issues at IBM before moving to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), and joining Lenovo in 2006. Today, her much larger team may work within different functions, from product development – including consideration of AI – to global supply chain research and development, and now legal and compliance.
“I like change. I like learning and challenges. I’ve gotten that because the landscape has changed so much,” she says. “I’ve scratched that itch of being able to grow my mind.”
Lenovo’s decarbonisation strategy begins with improving data quality to enable implementations across nine key aspects. These include: lifting energy efficiency, increasing renewables usage, maintaining relevant certifications, logistics emissions reduction, the emissions reduction and renewable energy procurement programmes for suppliers, product and service innovation, the Lenovo 360 Circle programme for channel partners, and policy and industry engagement through trade associations.
The idea is to unite partners globally to tackle emissions, embrace circular economy goals and drive progress towards net-zero by working together, including sharing data.
Nine out of 10 of Lenovo’s leading partners collaborated on the circular economy goals in the company’s 2023-24 financial year. More than half were committed to driving renewable energy initiatives and aligned with the formal science-based targets initiative (SBTi).
“At Lenovo, I’m genuinely proud of the global nature of our commitments,” says Jacques. “We have groups within our manufacturing, procurement, sales, and product development teams of people who are experts in their area helping to drive real change all over the world. It’s not driven by one little group who’s saying this is important. It’s people all over the company.”
As its Climate Transition Plan 2025 confirms, Lenovo recognises that human activities contribute to climate change, concurrent with current climate science, stating: “Lenovo also recognises that if left unchecked, current trends in climate change present serious economic and societal risks, and agrees that specific actions are needed to stabilise atmospheric greenhouse gas (GHG) levels.”
Full-year 2024 reporting noted Lenovo’s Platinum recognition from EcoVadis, an AAA MSCI ESG rating, and a Hong Kong Institute of Certified PublicAccountants (HKICPA) Gold award for corporate Governance and ESG. A Gartner ESG score of 9/10 pushed the supplier to number 8 in the analyst firm’s global supply chain Top 25 list.
Customers continue to “seriously commit” to change, despite geopolitical headwinds, says Jacques. Technology is the “only path to net zero”, and regulatory frameworks, including for supply-chain traceability, continue to reflect an enthusiasm for tackling emissions.
“We want the comforts that energy provides: leveraging the power of technology to make all these systems more efficient is best,” says Jacques.
Start by understanding why sustainability matters to your business, whether it’s customer expectations, talent attraction, license to operate, or revenue opportunity, she advises, adding: “Quantify the potential impact. Next, formalise governance. Bring executives together from across the business to share responsibility for ESG strategy – this strengthens buy-in and drives real progress.”
Then set meaningful, measurable goals focused on areas where you can make the greatest impact. Report both results and challenges. Finally, “be bold”, she says.
“You are likely to have more internal supporters than you realise and by building a network of advocates, ideally through formal governance, you’ll amplify momentum and advance key initiatives.”
Read more about IT Sustainability
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