What Does Sustainability Mean to Techbuyer?

Sustainability practice takes many forms across different sectors, countries, and mindsets but, at Techbuyer, it all comes down to a singular ethos: guaranteeing the needs of the future without compromising the needs of the now.  

The focus on no compromise is an essential takeaway from this definition. That is why we believe in a viable and financially sound sustainability model that drives forward progress and supports our economy rather than demanding resources. We believe that sustainability is about designing and practicing environmentally friendly habits that help us progress across all metrics – finance, performance, and ease among them – whilst ensuring the health of our planet.

 
This is the principle that we apply to our business and what drives us to support each aspect of sustainability practice that we promote and champion. This belief forms the backbone of our company and demonstrates how environmental best practice can support business function and financial development.

 
Techbuyer is a strong advocate for sustainable thinking and environmental best practice within an organization. At the heart of this advocacy are the people behind our business that provide IT transformations to businesses around the world. 

We believe in developing careers and investing in our people to move our business forward; creating a knowledgeable team, with the skills and drive to do well, is a core aspect of our sustainability strategy in order to develop a legacy of IT lifecycle thinking and environmental IT transformation. Through the passion of our team and the values they uphold, we are able to advance sustainability in the IT sector and generate innovative ideas to create the change we want to see in the industry.  

Sustainability and Business Sense

In a business setting, sustainability must do more than simply do good; it must be the most sound, long-term financial option. We are determined to ensure that sustainable IT is not only a nice-to-have but that it is also the best solution for businesses in every consideration, including performance and efficiency. 

In our IEEE-published academic journal, undertaken alongside the University of East London, we proved that, with the slowdown of Moore’s Law, refurbished IT devices were capable of matching or outperforming new hardware, when optimally configured, on compute power and efficiency metrics. This study was a milestone in our research as it demonstrated that refurbished IT – a more sustainable choice in terms of reduced carbon production, material usage, and waste – was a viable business option for companies around the world. 

Refurbished IT does not compromise on performance or efficiency, meaning that this sustainable solution can become an integral aspect of all our business models and, therefore, our overall economy. This philosophy is growing in popularity; 57% of companies have started using energy-efficient or climate-friendly machinery, technologies and equipment, as opposed to regular hardware - and refurbished plays a key part in this. 

This is what sustainability means to us: practicing environmentally friendly habits that not only bolster sustainable development but also do not compromise on what we need for now and in the future. This belief is the undercurrent of all the services we offer, and it is the backbone of how we plan and develop our business operations. 

Championing the Circular Economy  

Our society is wasting materials at an unsustainable rate through the prevailing “take-make-waste" economy. This means that we are quickly running out of Critical Raw Materials that are needed for many aspects of our society, including the greening of the energy grid. 

The best solution to this problem is the development of a financially viable and effective circular economy that prioritizes reuse, repair, and refurbishment over disposal. 
We are strong advocates for the circular economy, and we design our services and solutions around achieving this for the IT and data center industries. This practice is the basis of our organization and the core pillar behind what sustainability means to us. 

As a result, we focus on adapting our business to a circular model by reducing our waste, practicing a zero-to-landfill policy on the IT assets we acquire, developing innovative packaging solutions, in the UK, built with circularity in mind, and providing high-quality refurbished IT solutions designed and tested by industry experts. 

Find out more about why we believe in a circular economy here. 

The Circular Economy and Business Practice

 
The circular economy promotes repair, refurbishment, reuse, and, eventually, recycling, to reduce the impact of waste on our environment and to protect valuable resources from ending up in landfill. 

In order to establish these practices in a business setting, we have developed services centered around these four pillars of a circular economy that are designed to promote sustainability whilst also ensuring that the company in question gets what they need. 

A large aspect of these circular IT solutions comes down to our ITAD services and secure data erasure. For a truly circular and sustainable IT economy to form, it must address the issues experienced by businesses and provide proactive and transformational solutions. 

One such concern is data security; traditionally, businesses will turn to physical data destruction to protect sensitive information on the IT hardware they dispose of. However, quality ITAD services offer a secure and environmentally friendly option for organizations that must address this issue.  

By providing secure and guaranteed data sanitization, we offer companies around the world a secure solution to disposing of harmful e-waste, ensuring that they can improve their sustainability credentials in a viable manner that makes sense within their business practices.  

Find out more about our ITAD service here to dispose of your used IT hardware ethically and securely or explore our full range of sustainable IT solutions here.

 
Reducing the Impact of our Operations and Services 

Being sustainable is not solely about helping others reach their environmental goals but also about practicing sustainable habits ourselves. Whilst we still focus our efforts on material usage and waste, we aim to put our beliefs into practice and reduce the environmental impact of our business on the environment. 

Through improving our packaging, offering sustainability training to our UK teams, using refurbished technology in our offices and facilities, and undertaking industry-leading research into data center efficiency, we are working to improve our own business model for a sustainable future. 

We believe that sustainability is not simply about improving the world for our customers; it also means looking inwards and changing our own structure for a brighter future. 

Dealing with the Problem of Material Usage and Waste Stream 

Sustainability does not just come down to a single individual, team, or business; it must be universal. Sustainable practice requires a societal change in attitude and a shift in common habits to create a liveable future, however for it to become universal, it must be the best option in terms of finance, performance, efficiency, and ease.

 
We have a long way to go to reach this point; however, we believe that training and education are the tools that we need to get there. That is why we are working to offer sustainability training, provided by our Head of Sustainability and Chartered Environmentalist, Astrid Wynne, to all employees in the UK with the intention to extend to our global team. Sharing knowledge allows our team to implement inventive and innovative solutions that drive our sustainability progress across the business. 

Our sustainability team needs the expertise of our warehouse, marketing, sales, purchasing, and HR departments, to implement sustainable best practice across our business – all areas of our business are involved. Training enables us to ensure these teams have the skills they need to drive these changes and foster a culture of environmental practice. 

The sustainability world is loud, and much of the noise comes from impractical solutions and greenwashing that often distracts us from the good work being done across industries. But within the hustle and bustle we are all trying to make a difference and at Techbuyer we are serious about enhancing sustainability in the IT sector. Sustainability isn’t just a nice-to-have for us, it is a core aspect of our organization.  As specialists in refurbished technology, our focus on material usage and waste, and providing the most sustainable and financially viable solutions, allows us to make a difference and create a more environmentally friendly IT sector globally.  

Practicing more sustainable habits around IT hardware is a way that you can make a difference and build environmental best practice into your organization today. View our full range of sustainable IT solutions here or get in touch to find out how we can help you reduce the impact of your technology on the planet.