Why remanufacturing? IT equipment represents an alarmingly high amount of carbon footprint – 350kg for a laptop, 600kg for a desktop, and 6,360kg for a rack server. To put into perspective, 15 laptops produce carbon emission as much as a mid-sized car. What’s more shocking is that almost 70% of the laptops that were disposed of every day can still be reused. Many people think that the circular economy is just another way to describe recycling, but that isn’t the reality, it is much more than just recycling. Remanufactured equipment impacts the environment positively and helps reduce carbon footprint as it does not need to go through the entire manufacturing process again.
What is remanufacturing? Remanufacturing is a standardized industrial process where cores are returned to same-as-new, or better, condition and performance. It should not be confused with refurbishing which only repairs parts where needed to restore full functionality hence usability and performance are lackluster.
What about performance? The perception that latest would be greatest gives a false sense of assurance for technology users to keep driving IT equipment refreshes, despite knowing the devastating environmental and climate impact caused by these growing e-wastes. However, according to a study by Cranfield University (UK), remanufactured computers perform at 93% – 97% of the performance of brand new computers.
The study compared the performance of new and remanufactured laptops in order to discover the real differences from a standard office user’s perspective, using industry standard PC benchmarking tool with comprehensive, verifiable office application benchmark that utilizes popular office productivity software, simulating workloads representative of the modern day office user.
Is 3% worth it?
Remanufactured PCs perform near equal to brand new PCs, some even perform better than new laptops and PCs.
From the wide-array tests, it evidently proves that remanufactured PCs is a prudent choice for office users as it is significantly lower in price compared to new PCs with insignificant variance in performance. Ensuring a right-fit methodology instead of blindly chasing after the latest and greatest, and most importantly, infuse the sustainability factor in each decision-making would represent a best practice for any wise organizations.
On top of that all, mining operations to manufacture new computers damage land, use up huge amounts of energy and lead to pollution in the air, soil and water systems. Once the laptop or computer is no longer deemed “new enough” it is likely to be disposed of in third world countries where e-waste continues to inflict further harm on people and mother earth. Remanufacturing is an outcome of circular economy, which is aligned to United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals for responsible consumption and production that looks at all options across the supply chain to use as few resources as possible, keeping IT infrastructure operating for as long as possible, extracting maximum value from them.
Similarly, ethical disposal of PCs and laptops when no longer in ‘new’ condition, ensuring whether could it be repurposed before the eventual recycle is a big step toward a greener tomorrow, and it’s better than just disposing of equipment without care.
We at Rentwise believe that you don’t have to damage our environment to operate or grow a business. We encourage business owners and organizations to join us in preserving mother earth for our future generation by adopting this holistic practice. Remanufactured business grade computers supplied by Rentwise looks like new, works like new and is given up to 3-year warranty which is comparable with brand new business-grade equipment in the market. Only robust and durable business-grade equipment are remanufactured which qualify unsurpassed military grade (MIL-STD810G), meaning they are able to withstand dust, temperature, water, drop, and shock tests.
*Disclaimer: The above statistic is purely based on research by Cranfield University and does not reflect the actual brand.
