Sustainability has become a given for most industries, but a Nordic survey from Lenovo reveals that IT departments have lagged behind in this development. The survey shows that IT staff are not aware of the emissions their IT products cause, nor how they can reduce their carbon footprint.

Lenovo has teamed up with YouGov conducted the survey The state of Nordic sustainability, which surveyed IT managers and other IT staff in the four Nordic countries to examine their work with IT-related sustainability. Some of the challenges the survey reveals are a lack of reconditioning of IT products, as well as a general lack of knowledge about the carbon emissions caused by both IT products, as the IT department's work.

IT staff lack understanding of the importance of reconditioning

Only 48 percent of IT staff surveyed in Sweden send their used IT equipment for so-called reconditioning – that is, the equipment is cleaned and refurbished before being reused. At the same time, a full 82 percent say they deposit their cans and bottles. To IT equipment, such as computers, tablets and smartphones, can be recycled and actually reused should today be as obvious as returning bottles and cans. IT equipment that is not recycled and handled correctly risks spreading environmental toxins, while recyclable materials are wasted.

– IT departments need to be informed about how they can take advantage of their used IT equipment – this should be a given today, explains Christer Eklund, Sweden manager at LenovoAt Lenovo, we have a product recycling program where you can return all Lenovo devices for recycling. This allows us to achieve circularity by manufacturing new IT equipment with a high percentage of reconditioned materials from recycled products.

Climate impact from IT is a blind spot for Swedish companies

A majority of the Swedish respondents (38 percent answer no, 25 percent answer don't know) do not know what carbon dioxide emissions their IT equipment causes throughout its entire life cycle – from production to recycling.

EU Sustainability Directive CSRD requires companies to accurately report their sustainability data, and it is therefore important that IT departments know what their sustainability data looks like. If you are not aware of how you cause carbon dioxide emissions, you are also a long way from being able to reduce them. The survey thus shows that Swedish IT departments need further training in sustainability, so they become more aware of the climate footprint they cause, and also what they can do to reduce this footprint.

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Few IT departments use reused IT equipment

While just under half of companies send used IT equipment for reconditioning, less than a third use companies in Sweden (31 percent) reconditioned equipment themselves in practice. This does not achieve the necessary degree of circularity, and thus reduces corporate sustainability by contributing to the constant purchase of new equipment that requires further exploitation of natural resources.

“In order for us to achieve the level of sustainability that the world needs, it is important that we also set a good example,” says Christer Eklund, Sweden manager at Lenovo. By using either reconditioned IT equipment or equipment that is largely made from recycled materials, we can together contribute to the true circularity that the world and its future need.

About the survey

The survey was conducted by the opinion and market research company YouGov. During the period February 13 – March 5, a total of 1,859 interviews were conducted via the internet. carried out with Swedish (645), Norwegian (186), Danish (715) and Finnish (313) IT professionals.