After a slight stall, the WEEE directive  finally come into play earlier this year. All electronic equipment, including computers, printers, scanners, telephones and anything else which used to have an electrical pulse, must be disposed of in an environmentally responsible manner.

With so many staff now adopting remote and flexible working practices, there is a demand for the newest technology to enable staff to work as productively as possible. Swapping large desktop computers for small portable laptops is an inevitable part of this transition, but also produces vast amounts of electrical waste.

A current issue is that very few IT professionals fully understand WEEE, the cost of disposal and where they can dispose of their old equipment. There are worries that WEEE will bring extra costs and inconveniences to the IT manager, as well as security issues around the disposal of hard drives and so on.

But there are actually several options available for companies. IT manufacturers will now willingly take back old equipment (often via a recycling service provider) for a very small charge, and there are numerous contractors who will move your goods on for very little money.

The finances behind WEEE are not widely understood; manufacturers in each sector have to pay for recycling of household WEEE and business WEEE, based on their annual turnover in the various categories and sectors. Most of this currently is to recycle and dispose of ‘historic waste’.  Manufacturers have the option to recoup the fee from sales in the form of a (VAT liable) ‘Visible Fee’ to retailers and ultimately consumers on non-business user sales, but practically, few have introduced this.

In terms of security, most companies would probably choose to wipe the hard drives themselves, but nearly all disposal companies will offer this as a service. And of course recycling the material is not the only option; there are several charities, such as Computer Aid International, who are always looking for old PCs to refurbish cheaply to send onto developing countries.

While the option to recycle has always been available to businesses, what has changed and needs better understanding is how do it in compliance with the new rules. IT managers must work with staff to fully educate them as to the directive, to ensure that all electronic waste is disposed of in a responsible manner, and that all recycling service providers are accredited AATFs - Approved Authorised Treatment Facilities.

Just as businesses have taken on board their environmentally-friendly initiatives, such as encouraging flexible benefits, reducing power consumption and printing less, it is now time for them to take responsibility for the large amounts of electronic waste they produce.

My last post dealt with the merits of smarter, flexible working and how businesses need to define policies for remote working and WFH (working from home) before rolling out a scheme company-wide.  The use of IT to improve process efficiency is ingrained into our every thought and decision; we now need to consider environmental factors in the same breath as cost saving. 

Findings from a recent study by Oxford University show that flexible working and WFH is definitely one way to help cut our carbon footprint.  WFH means employees can dodge rush hour and traffic jams, and less commuting means less carbon.  Broadband, web and phone conferencing for homeworking and international virtual meetings are all technologies which can reduce the energy demands of the business.

Aside from flexible working, IT can employ a number of measures which can help the business become more environmentally friendly.

Workforces are growing ever-more dispersed and the physical office is being replaced by a virtual one.  This means that today’s documents are stored on servers rather than in filing cabinets.  Less paper might mean more trees but with computers, printers and servers running all day, technology is a major consumer of energy within businesses. 

IT leaders need to identify IT management or IT controllable practices that can help the business reduce power consumption.  For instance, in a global business it’s not reasonable to shut down all servers overnight, but it’s not unreasonable to set policies that require PCs, monitors and printers to be switched off (not just left on standby) when not in use, that office lights are controlled by timers or movement sensors, and that heat generated by computer equipment is used to offset the office heating bill.

Printing will be with us for a long time yet but we can more actively promote electronic data interchange for most commercial documents, saving on printing, postage and transport costs and their associated energy demands.

To find out more about how IT can go green, Computing is running a four part web seminar programme which introduces a seven-step plan to improving our green credentials.