01732 759725 24 CIRCULAR IT Ashley Ross, Sales Manager at Flex IT UK, a specialist distributor of circular IT, urges vendors and channel partners to act quickly The Royal Mint continues sustainability journey with Circular Computing remanufactured laptops available on the refurbished market. Circular IT is intended for different segments. Before an RFP is made, it’s crucial to determine what departments can run on circular IT. Then, on the supply side, it’s time for the channel and vendors to start incentivising the sale of circular IT to make it more appealing for sales representatives actively to sell it. Currently, it is not viable on a personal level for a sales person to focus on selling circular hardware, due to targets being set for selling new. We understand that the channel and vendors are careful about committing to refurbished IT, because selling new products is still the main driver for revenue and profit. However, they need to find a way to embed circular IT into their business models, for example by providing circular discounts/ credits to customers or a guaranteed buy-back value to keep the circular cycle in motion. Customers are clearly moving in this direction and suppliers may find the train Process, Circular Computing remanufactures HP, Dell and Lenovo laptops to look and perform like new, with the added benefit of carbon-neutral processes and end-product. Simon Edwards, Head of IT Operations at The Royal Mint, said: “Sustainability is core to the long-term future of The Royal Mint and our technology function is challenged with delivering sustainable computing for our employees. We teamed up with Circular Computing and ran a trial of their sustainable laptops. “Not only do the remanufactured laptops meet our demanding specifications, they have premium appeal, from the packaging they arrive in to the quality of the devices themselves. They also come with extended warranty options, which made it an easy decision to move to Circular Computing.” Inga Doak, Head of Sustainability and ESG at The Royal Mint, added: “Investing in has left the station if they don’t act now. The example I always bring up is Kodak, the inventor of the digital camera. They had all the patents sewn up, yet the board was reluctant to make use of them – ‘If we bring this to market, it will destroy our film business, where we earn all our money’. They locked their invention in a safe and didn’t do anything with it, and we all know what happened next. If you don’t have a vision for where the market is going, you may be protecting your business today, but at the risk of leaving it massively exposed in the future. Circular IT is already relevant, mainly due to its attractive price. However, the shift to buying it for sustainability reasons is accelerating. By building sustainable solutions today and telling the story behind them, Flex IT intends to be at the forefront of circular IT for vendors and the IT channel. www.flexitdistribution.com a sustainable future for all our stakeholders is integral to The Royal Mint’s overall business ambition. Partnering with Circular Computing, the first company in the world to achieve a BSI Kitemark for their remanufactured laptops, provided us with a fantastic opportunity to demonstrate this commitment. As The Royal Mint transforms for the future, we want to partner with more organisations like Circular Computing that support our ambition to be leaders in sustainable precious metals.” Last year, The Royal Mint introduced a new technique for recovering precious metals from electronic waste, including gold which it is using in a new luxury jewellery range. It is currently developing a full-scale plant in South Wales to process thousands of tonnes of e-waste per week and recover hundreds of kilograms of precious metals per annum. www.circularcomputing.com The topic of sustainability has been gaining significant traction of late and, with it, the idea of a circular economy. As people reflect more on how they want to behave and how they expect other companies to operate, demand for circular IT is increasing. This, combined with Government net zero and e-waste reduction targets, is adding real impetus to the market for circular IT. However, there are still barriers that buyers and suppliers need to overcome in order to capitalise on this demand. For example, while procurement departments are starting to include a certain level of circularity in Request For Proposal (RFP) documents, the specifics of products are often lacking. It’s simply not realistic to have an RFP for a brandnew Mercedes fleet, say, and to put in a footnote that 20% of the vehicles must be used. If you have a procurement for brand new devices with a high-tech specification, you cannot expect 20% of that to be Circular Computing, a leader in the remanufacturing of laptops, is helping The Royal Mint to decarbonise its IT estate by supplying it with carbon neutral remanufactured laptops certified to be equal to or better than new devices. The Royal Mint, the official producer of UK coins and other offerings including precious metals investment, luxury collectables and jewellery, is committed to reducing Scope 3 emissions across all areas of its operations, including IT. To this end, it has already taken delivery of more than 70 carbon neutral, remanufactured Lenovo ThinkPad T480 laptops, with further deliveries scheduled for later this year. Using a BSI Kitemark-certified 360-point Circular Remanufacturing Why it’s time to incentivise sales of Circular IT The beauty of remanufacturing Ashley Ross
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