Carbon Footprint

Tier 1 specialises in the re-use of ex-corporate IT equipment and by buying from www.tier1online.com, you are providing a demonstrable positive effect on a number of areas of serious environmental concern.

Even when you buy new equipment from www.tier1online.com, we will commit to creating a ‘carbon neutral’ transaction. We realise that reducing carbon emissions is a key issue for business and individuals and carbon offsetting allows us to price carbon emissions and thereby reduce them most efficiently. High quality offsets from developing countries also provide a unique opportunity to engage with your team and demonstrate the power of emissions reduction to change lives. Tier 1 source credits from a wide range of geographies, project and quality certification standards.

Given that 75% of the environmental cost of a PC is expended before a new PC is turned on for the first time during the production phase of its lifecycle (ie extraction mining, processing, manufacture, distribution), it means only 25% of the environmental cost of a PC is incurred during the usage phase of its lifecycle.

Did you know that the manufacture of a single PC needs 1.7 tonnes of materials, including the consumption of more than 10 times its own weight in fossil fuels? And then there is the skewed distribution of consumption across the PC lifecycle. Most electrical products consume about 95% of lifecycle fossil fuels when in use. However, 75% of PC fossil fuel consumption has already happened before the computer is ever switched on.

This has crucial implications for business PC owners wanting to reduce the environmental impact of PC use. The high energy during manufacture is compounded by a PC’s unnecessarily short lifespan. While most green IT efforts focus on reducing power consumption, a true environmental impact assessment must study the entire product lifecycle and Tier 1’s role in helping to extend this lifespan must not be underestimated in the UK.

As 75% of the environmental damage occurs during the PC production process, production redesign and extending a PC’s usable life span are the most effective options to reducing their environmental cost.

Kuerh and Williams from the United Nations University in Tokyo conclude that reusing a whole computer is some 20 times more effective at saving lifecycle energy than recycling, and as Tier 1 re-use 73% of the IT equipment we handle, we do provide a positive impact

Furthermore, Tier 1 commit to zero landfill as part of our recycling process. With 73% of assets that Tier 1 handles being re-used, only 27% are recycled, ensuring no damage to the environment in areas of water or pollution and soil or ground contamination.

Buy from www.tier1online.com and do your bit for the environment!