The tech sector’s climate footprint is already massive and growing too large to ignore.
Today, it’s responsible for roughly 1.5% to 4% of global greenhouse-gas emissions. And the mountain of e-waste keeps getting taller: in 2022, we generated 62 million tonnes.
Yet only around 22% was collected properly for recycling.
IT teams have a significant role in this. After all, they decide what gets purchased, how long it stays in use, and where it goes when it's no longer needed. Those choices affect carbon emissions, day-to-day energy use, logistics, and end-of-life outcomes.
When you get those decisions right: buying eco-friendly electronics, using them longer, redeploying before replacing first, and retiring them with proof, IT becomes a powerful lever for hitting company climate goals. They also cut costs and reduce risk.
In this guide, I’ll walk you through how you can significantly reduce CO2 emissions in your day-to-day IT operations and manage e-waste responsibly.
TL;DR:
- As an IT team, you have significant influence over your organization’s carbon footprint.
- Start your sustainability efforts in your own day-to-day operations. Starting with sustainable procurement, make climate goals a persistent factor in running your IT processes.
- Buying smarter helps a lot. Create a refurbish-first procurement system and choose durable, energy-efficient hardware.
- Extending device life significantly impacts sustainability goals. Focus on maintenance, repairs, and simple upgrades (like new batteries or SSDs) to avoid new purchases.
- For handling EOL devices, you can choose to partner with
- Your ultimate aim is to make sustainability a core part of IT policy — train your team and get leadership buy-in for lasting change.
- Workwize supports IT sustainability by standardizing device configurations, using local warehouses for efficient hardware shipping, enforcing supplier sustainability criteria, and streamlining lifecycle management with take-back and reuse programs.