Recognised as one of the world’s most sustainable IT services companies, Atea is increasingly taking steps to minimise its environmental footprint. One step in this direction was the training of Atea Sustainability Ambassadors from among Atea’s 8,000 employees, who are committed to addressing the issue both inside and outside the company. In this article, Helery Truu, the Sustainability Ambassador of Atea Estonia highlights five aspects of IT infrastructure that, if thought through, will do the environment a great favour.
Thoughtful printing
Today’s printing solutions are more and more environmentally friendly, both in terms of ink and the use of printing technology. One of the smartest solutions is a personalised printing service that allows company employees to retrieve printed material from the device using a personal code or employee card. This prevents materials forgotten in the printer from ending up in the bin or sensitive information from being left accessible next to the printer. Thanks to the use of print statistics, users will be more responsible with their printing, which will ultimately reduce the amount of paper used for printing.
Use of rental equipment
It is certainly important to choose equipment that is of high quality and long-lasting. However, users can put pressure to replace a device before its lifetime is over. Therefore, it is a good idea to use a rental service for the acquisition of equipment, where all the company’s equipment rented and returned to the service partner and replaced with new equipment at a fixed date. The service provider will take back the used equipment, where it will be reprocessed and recycled. This way, the company does not have to face a situation where all the equipment needs to be replaced at once, but in addition to the purchase of new equipment, it has to responsibly dispose a large amount of equipment that is still in working order.
Plan the disposal of products
However, if you’ve decided to buy high-quality, long-lasting equipment instead of renting it, you must also plan for its disposal. Under the Waste Act, the seller of the equipment is obliged to take back and dispose of the packaging in which the equipment is sold. The next step is to plan for what will happen to the equipment when it reaches the end of its life. Atea currently takes back 20-30% of the equipment it sells for recycling and reuse through its Goitloop service. Our customers have saved a total of 58,937 tons of CO2 just by giving their equipment a new life via the Goitloop service.
Host virtual servers in a green energy data centre
Green energy data centre solutions help you save energy and money. In similar data centres, systems are built to maximise the use of energy from renewable sources, to implement residual heat and to consider high levels of energy efficiency. By choosing a sustainable data centre, you guarantee that you are working with a company that has a forward-looking development plan and a partner you can count on for the long term. Such service providers are also available in Estonia, ask your IT partner for advice.
Choose responsible partners and equipment manufacturers
Managing IT infrastructure in both large and small companies requires a wide network of partners: IT equipment manufacturers, resellers and service providers. It’s worth checking how much your company’s IT partners as well as the various IT equipment manufacturers focus on sustainability. What are the supply chains, the materials used for equipment, and how responsibly are they operated? For example, it’s worth starting by checking whether the equipment manufacturer you are working with is a member of the RBA (Responsible Business Alliance).
