The 10 arguments to defend the green iT

‍

Ah the end of year celebrations! Sitting around the Christmas dinner or with a glass of champagne in the hand while waiting to pass the fateful hour of the 31st, discussions around environmental issues can quickly become sterile when arguments are lacking.

So what do we say when faced with talk of inaction and denigration of green iT?

Here are 10 preconceived ideas to refute so that the table becomes a little more aware of the issues of responsible digital.

‍

1. "It's not on my scale that it's going to change much."

If there is a discourse of inaction that prevails, it is this one! We point the finger at others before looking at what we can do at our own level.

It is important to understand that everyone can take actions in their daily lives that can have an impact.

Why?

Simply because there are 3 levels of action to take:

• at the individual level: this is the first step to raise awareness and reach a larger number of people;
• at thecorporate level;
• at the collective level.

Climate inaction should not be the result of defeatism. We must not forget that our purchases and choices have consequences on the environment and on other people.

Between theextraction of rare materials, theassembly of devices or the management of the end of life of computer tools, it is people who are exploited behind all these difficult tasks.

When we know that each French person owns an average of 8 digital devices, we realize that individual actions can have a significant weight.

‍

2. "My boss? That's not his priority because it's going to cost too much."

It is a common misconception that buying refurbished devices will cost more than buying new ones. However, the opposite is true since a reconditioned device can cost up to 70% less.

If green IT is more and more popular in companies, it is because it embodies the ecological commitments of the company, but also because it allows to reduce some costs.

Fears about refurbished devices are mostly about the cost of some repairs and the slowness that can occur with devices that are not current year. These are misconceptions.

As explained in an Easypanel study, the important thing is to take care of your computer equipment to keep it performing well. It is especially this factor that should not be neglected since 109 hours, on average, are lost per year and per employee because of computer slowness.

And if you are reluctant to buy refurbished equipment, Rzilient also offers the option of leasing its iT fleet. The cost of renewal is therefore lower, even taking into account the cost of breakdowns and repairs.

‍

‍

3. "I've had my phone for three years already."

That's good, but the important thing is to keep it as long as possible. 3 years, even if today it seems like a lot, it's actually still very little. The lifespan of devices has been divided by 3 in 30 years.

With all the increasingly small and numerous components, it is more difficult to repair, upgrade, recondition and recycle computer devices.

When you know that the simple manufacturing of the phone represents about 80% of its total carbon footprint, you can understand the importance of avoiding changing it every year for a newer device.

Between programmed obsolescence and psychological obsolescence which both push to overconsumption, it is necessary to get out of certain schemes to become aware that the resources of the digital are not unlimited.

‍

4. "Who knows what condition I'll find the computer in".

This is probably the argument that comes up most often among people who don't dare to buy refurbished devices. However, it's time to take the plunge and reduce your impact.

To reinforce this fear about the condition of the refurbished device, we can look at the different grades that explain the condition. Close to new, with some scratches almost invisible or visible to the naked eye, these are the grades that will mention the condition to be expected if we buy this device.

It is also important to look at the suppliers and partners who have refurbished the unit. This is the most important element of trust.

At Rzilient we have several partners who refurbish the computer devices so that they are fully functional.

‍

5. "Oh no, but I'm already emptying my mailbox."

In the last few years, many applications that help to empty one's e-mail box regularly have appeared. Although this is very useful to reduce one's footprint, it is not the storage of data that pollutes the most but its transportation.

It is more useful to unsubscribe from newsletters that you never read or to transfer your large files with tools like FileVert than to delete only your e-mails.

To reduce your footprint, it is important toact up stream first.

‍

6. "Already working from home and cutting back on my car trips, I'm not going to cut back on my digital devices either."

This is clearly a false belief. We must not forget that the increase in telecommuting has caused other significant ecological impacts. This is called the rebound effect.

The transportation footprint is reduced, but other emissions factors have increased:

• Consumption of electricity and resources for heating;
• Increased data transport used to work 8 hours on its computing devices;
• Over-equipment of employees at home.

Savings elsewhere are offset by new behaviors induced by these new changes.

This is the rebound effect of telecommuting: the reduced ecological footprint of less car use is counterbalanced by the increase in digital consumption.

‍

‍

7. "I saw that they were going to build eco-responsible data centers."

We have to be careful with this kind of initiatives that are more about greenwashing than anything else. Because a data center that doesn't exist will always have a lesser impact than an eco-responsible data center.

It is important to question these green speeches because often they are simply compensation solutions that are put in place to reduce the footprint, except that they are often ineffective and feed greenwashing and the disempowerment of companies.

Moreover, if the electricity is called "green", it is because the pollution is elsewhere in the production chain.

The only solution to reduce the digital footprint is to move towards sobriety.

‍

8. "Oh, but they just passed the REEN Act."

Yes, it is a good thing that this law was passed on November 15, 2021 with the ambition to reduce the environmental footprint of digital in France (REEN). But it is not enough because it has no legal obligation.

This is a first step in raising awareness of the impact of digital on a national scale, but there is still a long way to go. There are other levers of awareness and accountability for companies, such as the Digital Corporate Responsibility (DCR).

‍

‍

9. "We don't know what to do with our equipment today."

And that's precisely why you should try to reduce your consumption of new digital devices.

But when your devices are unusable, there are several solutions depending on whether you are an individual or a company.

In the first case, if you have computer equipment that you wish to recycle, there are 3 situations:

• if your appliance is still working and can be repaired: repair it if possible or give it to solidarity collection associations.
• if the appliance cannot be repaired and you want to buy a new one: electrical appliance distributors are obliged to take back your used appliances in store when you buy new equipment.
• if the device is not repairable and you do not intend to buy another one: free access recycling bins exist in some stores or waste disposal centers for electronic devices of less than 25 cm diagonal.

If you are a company, it's a little different because the amount and frequency of retraining is greater.

• You can contact a specialized recycling company tocome and collect the electrical and electronicwaste directly from your site.
• It is possible to bring your WEEE directly to a collection point if it represents less than 2 tons of waste.

In both situations, it is important to recycle your used electronic devices to give them a second life when possible.

‍

10. "We're already making efforts every day, it's not this 4% that will change anything."

Every percentage of greenhouse gas emissions counts, especially given the trajectory of global warming over the next few years.

All gestures are important, big or small, and digital is an issue to be taken into account urgently given the exponential development that the sector is experiencing.

Remaining defeatist or pointing fingers at others will not help. It is important to understand that we have a role, as individuals, to play, even if it cannot all rest on us.

We hope to have given you the necessary ammunition to answer these 10 sentences that put climate inaction and disempowerment at the center of the arguments. Rzilient wishes you a happy holiday season and a green iT year in 2022.

Do you want to reduce your company's digital footprint and start 2022 with responsible and tangible commitments? How about discussing your project?