The Importance of Extending Device Life and Supporting Circularity
By Greg Smith, Executive Director and General Manager, EMEA Services and Solutions Group
We live in a society where it’s far too easy to throw away old devices – this needs to change. After all, we only have one planet, and we all have a responsibility to look after it. Although implementing a sustainability strategy can seem like a daunting task, there are some simple areas to focus on, such as making the devices we do have last for longer.
60% of IT decision-makers say that device management is an important environmental issue for their organisation[1]. Despite this, 52% report that tablets and laptops are replaced according to “expected” lifecycles1 – not when devices stop working or actually need replacing.
It’s easy to see how this happens – we all want the best hardware for our businesses, but that doesn’t necessarily need to involve new hardware. Look after your devices, service them where necessary, and sign up to an effective support solution, and they can last a lot longer than you might imagine.
The benefits of a dedicated support package
Servicing and maintaining your devices to a high standard is particularly important in an age where hybrid and remote working is increasingly adopted, and helps to keep your employees working wherever they are.
This is where a comprehensive support package can make a large difference, helping to eke a lot more life out of your devices without compromising on performance. Smarter proactive and preventative solutions can reduce unplanned downtime, whilst also keeping your tech stack running as efficiently as possible.
AI-powered insights, which are included with solutions such as Lenovo Premier Support Plus, can also provide additional predictive services, helping your business to identify issues before they become problems. Along with keeping downtime to a minimum, such solutions also make it easy to monitor storage and battery life, along with optimising PC health to keep your devices running efficiently for longer.
Providing a better experience for your employees and tech team
Effective support solutions can also provide timely action when it comes to remote troubleshooting and repairs without overworking your IT team. This means your employees benefit from quicker repairs, keeping your teams happy and your business running as efficiently as possible. And, with your support partner looking after your devices, your IT team can focus instead on mission-critical tasks aimed at improving business performance.
Solutions such as Lenovo Premier Support Plus even provide monitoring capabilities that keep you aware of device health, enabling smarter device management. Not only does this help your devices run longer, it also helps free up time for strategic priorities, including today’s top-of-mind sustainability initiatives and innovation.
Don’t forget accidental damage
Age isn’t the only thing that stops many of us from keeping devices for longer. It’s all too easy for accidents to happen, especially when working from home. This is where some form of insurance is critical. Your support solution can make a difference here as well, with accidental damage packages supporting the circular economy by extending the life of your devices.
Solutions such as Lenovo’s Accidental Damage Protection (ADP)[2], which is included as part of Premier Support Plus, help to protect against the unique challenges of working at home or on the road, helping your employees to work confidently wherever they are. Not only is this beneficial when it comes to sustainability, it can also help your business to save money. Compared to the cost of most common repairs or system replacements, with ADP you could save between 50%-93%[3].
A step in the right direction
When it comes to sustainability, extending the life of your devices is a great place to start. As a consumerist society, far too many perfectly good devices end up in landfill, making up just some of the 50 million tons of e-waste dumped into the environment every year[4].
Let’s make those usable products last longer and along with a comprehensive recycling and sustainability strategy, you can help safeguard our planet for future generations.
[1] Soti, “Reduce, Reuse, Rethink: From Discard Mentality to Tech Sustainability,” 2022
[2] Dependent on market, parts, and hardware availability.
[3] Based on Lenovo internal data from NA, EMEA, and AP regions and cost of system board, LCD, and hard drive repairs on ThinkPad from April 2022 to April 2023.
[4] World Economic Forum, “A New Circular Vision for Electronics,” 2019
