The circular economy conversation – whereby material use is reduced; materials, products and services are redesigned to be less resource-intensive; and ‘waste’ is recaptured to manufacture new materials and products – is an important one at Lenovo, one of the world’s leading personal technology companies.
Yugen Naidoo, General Manager of Lenovo Southern Africa, explains: “As the business world around the globe continues to embrace the model of the circular economy, Lenovo understands that sustainability allows a business to be part of the broader community and contribute to general co-existence on our planet.
“From the design of our products to the customer’s experience, creating products from re-used materials and offsetting carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions, Lenovo has embraced different initiatives and business planning to play our role in echoing biological ecosystems, which operate on a cyclical basis, for the greater good of the environment. While this approach obviously assists the planet, which is a primary intention, it also brings business benefits for Lenovo as well as its business partners and customers.”
Benefits of Lenovo’s carbon reduction initiatives
Lenovo supports carbon reduction through carbon offsetting, which refers to any reduction of greenhouse gas emissions to make up for emissions that occur elsewhere. Carbon offsetting helps environmental projects that cannot secure funding on their own, and it gives businesses increased opportunity to reduce their carbon footprint. Carbon offset credits show that an organisation has reduced its emissions.
Naidoo clarifies: “We can look at adding the Lenovo CO₂ Offset Service, which offers a very simple and convenient way to offset CO₂ emissions, as an example of a business benefit of choosing Lenovo products. The initiative is unique in that it is directly linked to the individual devices purchased by the customer, rather than a generic type of offset. The Lenovo CO₂ Offset Service supports several different renewable energy initiatives. These include new projects, or extensions of existing projects, windmills, solar cells and biomass energy (among others). Forestation and forest conservation are also areas we are looking into for the future.
“From the customer’s perspective, one adds the Lenovo CO₂ Offset Service – integrated into the serial number – when ordering eligible devices. Once products are shipped, Lenovo reports to its official CO₂ Offset partner, which then finalises the transaction and provides confirmation – making it easy to track and confirm which environmental project has been supported by the purchase.”
The benefits of Lenovo’s carbon offsetting programme include the following:
- An organisation can choose the technology it needs from Lenovo without compromising on its environmental goals and continuing to move to a sustainable future.
- The organisation can work towards its carbon reduction goals with clear and detailed data that is provided by Lenovo.
- The organisation and Lenovo will be working together with a range of partners, including United Nations-vetted climate change projects, so that the organisation can trust the impact and integrity of the environmental projects it supports.
Sustainable product design, manufacturing and packaging
Naidoo notes that by 2025, 90 percent of Lenovo’s global operations will be powered by electricity that will be obtained from renewable sources.
“In addition, Lenovo is taking great care to ensure sustainable manufacturing and packaging of its products,” he adds. “For example, the Lenovo ThinkPad Z13 and Z16 laptops are engineered from recycled materials – recycled aluminium or PET vegan leather, respectively – and then boxed in 100 percent rapid-renewable, compostable packaging. But it is not only about our laptops: Lenovo has also entered the sustainability arena with our laptop bags.
“The Lenovo Eco Pro 15.6 backpack is sustainable, eco-friendly and innovative, and is comprised of over 80 percent recycled materials. Each backpack contains the equivalent of 34 plastic water bottles, recycled laminate commonly used in car windshields, and Global Recycle Standard certified fabrics. The recycled PET bottles are collected, crushed, chipped, and refined into pellets, which are then spun into yarn, which is woven to make an ultra-durable fabric, lining and trim for the backpack.”
Naidoo says Lenovo is also a leader in sustainable packaging, using bio-based material to reduce the plastic and carbon footprint of new technology. “In addition, these materials are light, which reduces CO₂ emissions during shipping. Lenovo is also able to provide packaging that is designed for tapeless boxes, to help reduce our use of plastic tape,” he adds.
Moving forward
“In addition to the production processes of our newest technology, Lenovo also supports the best possible maintenance of devices in order to prolong their lifecycle, thereby contributing to sustainability through the reduction of waste,” says Naidoo.
“We pride ourselves on our onsite support, which allows for reduced downtime, and also resolves any problem that could hinder the lifecycle of the product. With Lenovo Onsite support, we will perform an initial problem determination remotely, and Lenovo will either repair or exchange the failing machine at the customer’s location.”
He concludes: “Across all areas of the business, Lenovo is deeply invested in our planet – we are very pleased to be able to work together with our customers to honour the principle of sustainability. We have embraced the circular economy, which prioritises the principles of ‘reduce, reuse and recycle’, rather than a linear model in which resources are mined, and the products created ultimately become waste.
“We are committed to the ongoing journey to drive improvements in our product and packaging designs, including using sustainable packaging, and striving to reduce the carbon footprint of new technology in increasingly effective ways.”
