ICT hardware has a very large social and environmental impact, both in the production, use and processing of e-waste. Fair ICT Flanders' infographics show that the biggest impact is in the production phase. As a result, extending the useful life is the most important circular objective to focus on. The largest budget goes to operating costs, partly due to the high energy consumption. It is therefore advantageous to choose LCC as a price assessment when purchasing IT equipment.
In short, plenty of reasons to invest in the circular procurement of ICT!
Circular procurement strategies for ICT
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- Internal sharing means you need fewer products. For example for computer screens at the workplace.
- Renting or leasing is not necessarily circular, especially when short usage periods are standard procedure. Transparency and closing of the loop are therefore crucial here.
- Reuse within the organization for profiles or applications with lower functional needs.
- Reuse outside the organization through donation or second-hand sale. Ask for guarantees on safe data removal. When donating internationally, take into account the extra CO2 emissions caused by transport and ask for guarantees to avoid e-waste dumping.
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- Buy refurbished or second hand. Refurbished material is of equal quality and comes with guarantees just like new equipment. This means fewer new raw materials are needed. Include the energy consumption in your cutlery, for example via LCC. Energy consumption is the largest operating cost at ICT and also has a major impact on CO2 emissions. Also think about packaging and transport. Can it be delivered in laptop bags or reusable boxes? What requirements do you place on the fleet for delivery and repairs? Are the repairs carried out on site? The generic packaging criterion comes in handy here.
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- Extending warrenty: for example, ask about the additional cost of an extra year of warrenty in your specifications.
- Contractual agreements for maintenance and repair beyond warranty: You can choose to include this immediately in your contract with the supplier or to conclude a contract with a permanent external repair company. Larger organizations can deploy an internal service.
- Upgradeable products: For example, ask for a memory that can be easily expanded.
- Design for longevity: Look at battery life and include criteria for resistance to shock, vibration, drops, and temperature changes. Use extra protection against damage: screen protection, covers, carrying bags,…
- Repairability and maintainability: iFixit calculated repairability scores for smartphones, tablets and laptops, for example, based on the replaceability of the battery with standard tools. They also offer manuals. Include in your specifications how long spare parts should be available (eg 5 years) and ask for a price list.
- Usage optimization according to usage profiles: Determine the usage time based on the functional needs of the user instead of using generic standard terms.
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- Design for disassemby and modular design: this encourages reuse of the product after refurbishment or high-quality use of the parts.
- Contractual agreements for take-back and reuse with the supplier: Include these in your specifications and ask for transparency about the reuse and any residual value.
- Stimulating circular business models:
- Sign a contract with a refurbisher.After refurbishment, they can deliver the devices back to your own organization or sell them to other customers. They can also reuse parts.
- Specialized recycling centers and thrift shops are allowed to take what is still usable after visual inspection. For the other products, you must engage an authorized collector.
- Always ensure transparency about what happens to the devices (is the loop closed?) and guarantees for secure data wiping.
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- Design for recycling: easy disassembly and easy recovery of critical raw materials
- Insight into materials: demand in the tender that the type of plastic is marked on the items.
- Contractual agreements for take-back and recycling: include take-back and recycling - for devices that cannot be reused - in your specifications with the supplier and request transparency about the processing and any residual value. It is legally permitted for the manufacturer of the devices to collect them for processing.
- Reducing toxicity: Presence of toxic substances during production and in the product itself can be harmful for the production employees and the product users. Additionally it makes it difficult to recycle them. That is why transparency and description of the components are important. In the EU GPP criteria you will find an example criterion on hazardous plasticizers in power cables. TCO Certified published a list of permitted chemicals, in order to avoid risky substitution.
- Stimulating circular revenue models:
- Work together with government approved disposal companies and ensure that the disposal is carried out to an authorized processor.
- Or use Recupel's smartloop platform (in Flanders). You may even get a residual value for your device there.
- Always ask for transparency about closing the cycle and guarantees for secure data wiping.
Sustainability labels
Recognized labels for IT hardware are TCO-certified and EPEAT (bronze, silver, gold). Both have a large market share, EPEAT is mainly active in the US. You can include these labels in your specifications as a technical condition, if you mention 'or an equivalent quality label'. This means that a supplier may demonstrate that he can also guarantee the criteria of the label through a dossier. The advantage of using labels is that the purchaser is sure that the conditions are complied with. The disadvantage is that it excludes smaller companies, such as refurbishers, because obtaining a label is often expensive and time-consuming. You can overcome this by demanding the label, unless it concerns refurbishment.
Criteria
- Extensive file with criteria for monitors, computers, tablets and smartphones on the EU GPP website
- On the SPP criteria tool you will find relevant criteria under the automation and telecommunications cluster
- ICLEI, Electronics watch, Procura+ and make ICT Fair published 'How to procure fair ICT hardware - Criteria set for socially responsible public procurement'
Ethical issues
This product group faces many ethical challenges. Transparency about respecting ILO conventions and human rights throughout the chain is important, but not self-evident. The law on public procurement (art.7) allows to explicitly require that any person acting as a subcontractor (at any stage) and any person who employs staff for the execution of the contract, is subject to all social and labor legislation where both international, European or national in force. You can adress this by adding ethical clauses to your tenders. Organizations such as Fair ICT Flanders, TCO-certified and Electronics Watch can advise on this.
LCC - Life Cycle cost
Public procurement law obliges to award to the most economically advantageous bidder (MEAT). The cost price may be calculated on the basis of the life cycle cost of the product. In addition to the acquisition cost, the operating and disposal costs are charged (Total Cost of Ownership). But also the external costs for the environment and society. For ICT hardware, electricity bills, repair costs and upgrading make up a very large part of the operating costs. So it's definitely worth using LCC analysis to choose the most cost-effective quote. The EU GPP tool for LCC of computers and monitors and the accompanying guide will help you on your way.
Circular Procurement Cases - ICT
Try to imagine that a smartphone brand can guarantee you that àll components are made and assembled by workers who are paid fairly for their work. Go one step further and imagine a smartphone manufac…
District09, the ICT partner of the City of Ghent , actively works on sustainable ICT and focuses in particular on extending the lifespan of devices. For example, business devices are extended to five…
Winner of the first Fair ICT Flanders Award On December 15, KU Leuven received the Fair ICT Award 2020. A reward for a process that already started in 2009. Step by step, KU Leuven is implementing…
Publications about Circular ICT
This whitepaper takes the views of Conrad Mohr and Dr Albert Sanchez-Graells as they explore remanufactured products role in the public procurement process. Input on public procurement from Dr Albert…
This TCO report explains how the linear production and consumption of IT products contribute to the climate crisis, the unsustainable depletion of natural resources and enormous amounts of toxic e-wa…
Hazardous substances in IT products are a risk to human health and the environment. Criteria in TCO Certified aim to reduce or eliminate the use of these substances, drive transparency and develop pa…
Software plays an important role in determining the environmental impact of ICT products. It has a measurable impact on computer-hardware energy consumption and increasing requirements can make it ne…
Within the Interreg NSR project ProCirc a webinar was organised about circular ICT.
This report is part of NGI Forward, the strategy and policy arm of the European Commission’s flagship Next Generation Internet (NGI) initiative, which seeks to build a more democratic, inclusive, res…
This Fair ICT Flanders infographic provides an overview of the various risks within the ICT supply chain. The route from raw material to final product is long and complex. Many actors are involved in…
If your organization is prepared to work on a fair ICT policy, it is important to consider a few questions in order to arrive at a concrete action plan. Why does your organization want to take on a p…
Between 60 and 85% of the CO2 emissions from ICT devices such as smartphones, laptops, tablets… come from the production phase. Purchasing organizations can drastically limit the impact of this phase…
This infographic from Fair ICT Flanders shows the decision-making process for the purchase of ICT hardware in a few steps. It allows buyers to reflect on their needs and also offers alternatives to n…
Building on the experience from organising market engagement as part of the Make ICT Fair project, ICLEI - Local Governments for Sustainability and Electronics Watch recommend to procurers a dialogue…
This website is the Flemish reference for Fair & Circular IT. FiF is a 3 year long project run by CATAPA vzw, Bond Beter Leefmilieu and Ondernemers voor Ondernemers and financed by the Flemisch Gover…
This report examines the current sustainability landscape of the tech sector. It provides a detailed framework for infrastructure and operations (I&O) leaders to analyze sustainability and outlines s…
This is an English translation of short case descriptions that are part of a larger report on Circular Procurement and Strategies among Norwegian Municipalities, developed by Inventura AS on behalf o…
This report presents the findings of work which estimates the value of a range of consumer electronics products following their first sale, alongside the estimated cost of recovering those products a…
The EU LIFE REBus (Resource Efficient Business Models) project1 aims to reduce the use of raw materials or extend the lifetime of products by demonstrating the commercial case for European businesses…
The criteria document aims to support experienced procurers in leveraging public purchases of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) hardware to positively impact working conditions across th…
The European Commission has developped a series of sector specific LCC calculation tools which aim to facilitate the use of LCC amongst public procurers. This is the user guide for the LCC tool for G…
The European Commission has developped a series of sector specific LCC calculation tools which aim to facilitate the use of LCC amongst public procurers. This is the LCC tool for GPP of computers and…
The European Commission have developped a series of sector specific LCC calculation tools which aim to facilitate the use of LCC amongst public procurers. This is the users guide for the LCC tool for…
The European Commission have developped a series of sector specific LCC calculation tools which aim to facilitate the use of LCC amongst public procurers. This the LCC tool for GPP of Imaging Equipme…
The EU GPP criteria are developed to facilitate the inclusion of green requirements in public tender documents. While the adopted EU GPP criteria aim to reach a good balance between environmental per…
The EU GPP criteria are developed to facilitate the inclusion of green requirements in public tender documents. While the adopted EU GPP criteria aim to reach a good balance between environmental per…
The project objectives were to map out the extent to which more circular business models are being adopted in the mobile phone and service industry, and identify how this adoption can be accelerated.…
Legal, operational and financial solutions to unlock the potential of the ‘Fairphone-as-a-Service’ model
Overview of product categories
Information about circular procument and example cases per specific product category.
Construction
Catering
ICT
Infrastructure
Office Furnishings and Lighting
Paper & Office Supplies
Health Care
Packaging
Textiles
Other
