For more than 25 years, SLS has been refurbishing, reselling and recycling IT and data center devices, thereby reducing the environmental impact of technology use. We’re proud to be part of a proactive community working to create a circular economy for IT devices.
Earlier this financial year we announced the launch of the SLS Sustainability Calculator, providing industry-leading environmental impact reporting to our clients. SLS clients can view dashboards or receive sustainability reports detailing how IT and data center devices processed by SLS are impacting the environment.
An Industry First – Calculating the Impact of Reuse Globally
Many of our clients have publicly announced their own sustainability goals and carbon reduction programs. Organizations are looking for detailed insights into the carbon impact of their overall operations and technology use. The sustainability calculator provides enterprises with enhanced reporting on the carbon impact of technology use, suitable to contribute to corporate sustainability reporting.
The calculator quantifies carbon avoidance not only from recycling, but also from the reuse of whole IT assets as well as components, an important differentiation from most calculators available. Incorporating reuse data provides a more accurate and complete overview of carbon avoided. Detailed dashboards show volumes of equipment processed, disposition routes and the carbon equivalent emissions avoided.
In addition to tonnes of carbon avoided, we also provide carbon avoided equivalency metrics, which provide a user-friendly way to visualize results.
Data Calculations and Assumptions
The calculator is powered by equipment manufacturer-reported data, carbon footprint estimates from mining of commodities, combined with our own lab-based asset data on recycling yields and material recovery. Combining this manufacturers and mining data with our own proprietary data yields accurate and reliable carbon avoided values.
Logistics, Refurbishment and Recycling Footprint
Our calculator also takes into account the transport footprint associated with moving devices from clients to SLS. We also report on the processing footprint at our Circular Centers.
Mileage calculations for transport factor in regional differences in average distances traveled, load capacities and varying freight emissions across Europe, Middle East, Africa, APAC, North America and LATAM. Processing footprints for refurbishing and recycling equipment are specific to the mix of SLS Circular Centers utilized for each client’s global ITAD program with location-based emissions factors.
Workplace and Data Center Assets
Carbon avoided from reuse of whole units and components, and recycling IT equipment is reported. Ten asset categories are reported: notebooks, PCs, monitors, all-in-one systems, servers, switches, routers, printers, mobile telephones, tablets) and four component categories: HDD arrays, solid state drives, RAM and processors. These categories reflect the equipment types most commonly received at SLS Circular Centers around the world. For other asset types averages are used to estimated carbon avoided calculations based on weight.
A Roadmap for Action
Sustainability is at the core of our business and the services that we offer. The SLS Sustainability Calculator adds value to our service offering and meets the reporting and transparency expectations of our clients.
Clients are able to quantify Scope 3 emissions associated with disposition of used IT assets, contribute to corporate carbon accounting and improve environmental outcomes.