Atos has published a report on digital workplace sustainability. The report “Increasing digital workplace sustainability: Data-driven strategy to accelerate progress together” finds that there are high levels of waste across the IT industry. It also found that using a data-driven condition-based approach can extend the lifespan of assets. From the standard 3-5 years to potentially as long as ten years.
While one might think that employees want the latest and best technology, in fact, 75% of employees are happy to keep their existing devices. Especially if they understand the environmental benefits of doing so.
Leon Gilbert, Senior Vice President Digital Workplace, Atos, said, “We wanted to leverage the vast quantities of data available to Atos and our partners to challenge convention and pinpoint new opportunities for enterprises and their IT service providers. Some findings surprised even our experts. We can now see how the financial, environmental and social value of every device can be increased while still delighting users.”
What is in the report
The fifteen-page report is based on 25 data points from over 28.5 million devices. With information provided by Atos services, Nexthink digital experience management platform, Tier 1 and Circular computing. The datasets used include device agent data, user behaviour analysis, digital experience metrics, aggregated help desk data, IT service management data and analytics, and asset disposal data.
The report also references a range of secondary sources and provides a comprehensive insight for IT leaders looking to increase the sustainability of their IT estate.
The main section of the report is divided into four sections:
- How do reliability, performance, efficiency and user experience change as devices age?
- What is the role of remanufactured devices in today’s IT estates?
- What’s happening along the device lifecycle?
- How efficiently are devices used in relation to energy consumption?
It concludes with three key insights for IT leaders to consider and act on.
- Device lifecycles can be doubled while still delighting users.
- Employee engagement is essential to workplace sustainability.
- Comprehensive and real-time data is essential to drive meaningful progress on sustainability.
Each section has a mix of data visualizations, data points and analysis alongside some comments from Atos and its partners in the research. They each conclude with some key takeaways that offer useful suggestions for IT leaders planning device replacement strategies.
How do reliability, performance, efficiency and user experience change as devices age?
The report has some important lessons for IT leaders. Many organisations refresh hardware every three years. A four-year refresh is more appropriate as asset performance only declines from year four. Between years 4 and five, performance drops by 22%.
The report also considers early upgrades, with investment in RAM increasing the digital experience score by 13%, while the generation of CPU has little impact.
Secondly, most devices already support Windows 11, so planning a hardware refresh based on an OS upgrade may increase costs and, from a sustainability point of view, is worse. 96% of devices in large organizations are Windows 11 compatible despite their age.
The report also delves into the details of workplace sustainability. It found that devices and workplaces generate 57% of ICT’s carbon footprint. 79% of a laptop’s carbon footprint is generated during manufacture. Each new device creates roughly 338kg CO2eq of carbon before it is even used.
Replacing assets regularly has a huge environmental impact. In 2022, there were 62 million tonnes of e-waste produced, of which only 12% was recycled. Where remanufactured, a laptop can save 1,200kg of the earth’s resources.
What is the role of remanufactured devices in today’s IT estates?
The authors believe that 76% of large organizations’ current laptop environments can be remanufactured. When remanufactured, devices achieve similar reliability as new devices. This is important as devices increase the error rate by 100% from five years old.
Around 76% of devices can be sent for remanufacturer after four years. Doing so would decrease the associated scope 3 emissions. Remanufactured devices are returned, refurbished and upgraded for employees. The remaining 24% can enter the circular economy in other ways.
What’s happening along the device lifecycle?
This section looks at what is happening now and paints a picture indicating there are savings to be made, as well as some interesting insights.
- 1% of recycled devices could have been redeployed instead.
- Only 12.3% of devices that go through decommissioning are faulty.
Enterprises should have a better analysis of the historical equipment and equipment needs of their workforce. They could reduce costs significantly with more and better data from their IT estate.
How efficiently are devices used in relation to energy consumption?
The devices monitored indicate that 48% of users have an external monitor. The authors point out that this can double the power used by an external laptop. While they indicate that this is a sustainability issue, they point out that employee experience and accessibility aspects should be considered. However, they omit to mention the ergonomic and health reasons why separate screens are important.
Organisations can do more to reduce their power consumption, though. 2% of laptops have an inefficient power plan, by 16% of devices run for more than 23 hours a day! The report also looks at the mean GMT hourly generation intensity gCO2/kWh over 24 hours.
Organisations need to do more. David Welling, IT Sustainability Governance Lead, National Grid, said, “Within our own organisation, we are looking at using the data from this study to drive strategic changes in behaviour. Today, very few of us would consider using our laptops to impact the demand variability of the grid. Yet nobody would think twice about charging their electric vehicle overnight when demand is lower and energy is greener.
“If we can connect that kind of demand flexibility with ICT, we have a real opportunity to fundamentally change the greenhouse gas emissions of entire energy systems for entire countries.”
Enterprise Times: What does this mean
Atos asserts, “what we can measure, we can change”, alongside its partners, it offers a range of services to support organisations to extend the lifecycle and reduce the carbon emissions from their IT estate.
Atos’ sustainable digital workplace suite includes more than 20 “Tech for Good” services and solutions, encompassing social value and accessibility criteria, as well as data analytics and user interfaces.
This report is well put together with primary and secondary research sources that make some strong arguments for organisations to do more. This is not just about increasing sustainability but also likely to reduce costs, though Atos does not quantify the savings remanufacturing offers over buying new.
