The IT manufacturer has revealed that it reuses and remanufactures IT products in its data centres.
Business Green reported that the manufacturer’s Global Asset Recovery Services (GARS) can “remanufacture just about any kind of IT equipment”, whether or not IBM manufactured the equipment in the first place.
The system, which has been in place since 1999, has remanufactured nearly 68 million kilograms of technology equipment, with 2012 alone seeing 250,000 units remanufactured – the site adds that “if you were to stack all the laptops IBM processed in 2012, they would reach 4.2 miles into the sky”, and 99 percent of the ‘demanufactured’ equipment was recycled or reused.
The website notes that this operation makes IBM “a standout in a technology industry where companies have been charged with deliberately undermining the longevity of their products to force users to buy newer models sooner”. The site contrasts IBM’s approach with that of Samsung and Apple, the former carelessly placing components so that they are not easily recovered, and the latter embroiled in legal battles over whether it intentionally “withheld existing technology” in order to release newer versions of its iPad for monetary gain.
Business Green noted in turn that technology manufacturers “long have been charged with building obsolescence into their products, a practice that is not only ethically dubious but environmentally harmful”, and GARS, part of IBM’s Global Financing Business, is designed to help companies “in need of a short-term technology solution or that lack the capital for expensive equipment”.
IBM’s John Muir, who leads the GARS sales team, stated to the news outlet: “We’re continually looking and working with engineers on how to best design products that will enable us to keep upgrading and upgrading and upgrading. We’re able to keep the technology as new as we possibly can, keep it as fresh as we possibly can, and to minimize the amount of waste.”
The programme also helps clients “use the money they save” to “cut energy usage” and “improve water efficiency with help from IBM’s Big Data services. The manufacturer itself benefits from GARS, with its Data Centre in Portsmouth, UK receiving a 50 percent increase in storage capacity from using remanufactured or reused server units, as well as saving money and energy.
The manufacturer was championed by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the Centre fo Climate and Energy Solutions, the Climate Registry and the Association of Climate Change Officers in the USA last year for leading the addressing of climate change, and also led Newsweek’s 2012 Global Green Rankings chart.