SUSTAINABILITY FOCUS 12

Following the 26th conference of the parties (COP26) held in Glasgow last year, countries and organisations around the world are working hard to set out plans for carbon neutrality. A standout point from COP26, was the shift in emphasis from national governments to corporations and the private sector to enhance ambitions to reduce emissions. This resulted in a wave of businesses announcing #NetZero goals and commitments to practicing sustainability. Such a transformative change is both exciting and can also feel overwhelming, so it can be helpful to look at what specific industries are doing and take your lead from them.

European Circularity

The circular economy is one such focus for organisations around the world – acting to redefine growth and reduce consumption of finite resources by prioritising re-use. It is an area we as Lexmark are prioritising through our membership of the European Remanufacturing Council and contribution to C-SERVEES, a European Union funded project, to prevent the waste of electronic equipment (WEEE). As well as recycling, in a circular model repair and refurbishing products for reuse rather than let them be thrown away after a single use is a priority.

Research conducted as part of the C-SERVEES programme on the print sector discovered some important issues which help identify where more can be done to boost the adoption of refurbishment and so accelerate the transition to a circular economy. Interestingly, very few organisations return their old devices back to the respective original equipment manufacturer (OEM). Even where OEMs do perform refurbishment and sell reconditioned devices elsewhere, they often tend not to be the more numerous smaller devices such as A4 printers. This is most likely because brand new A4 printers are already perceived as affordable, and there is a perception that it is easier, quicker and more reliable to replace a faulty desktop printer with a new one than investigate what’s wrong with it or buy a refurbished model.

The research also found that price and quality remain an issue when it comes to boosting the refurbishment market. At its simplest, quality must be high to encourage buyers and the cost of refurbishment low to encourage OEMs – understandably, preserving the environment is a harder choice if customers prefer to buy new products because they are the cheapest and easiest solution.

Refurbishment Rules

The good news is that there are several ways regulators and companies can increase the uptake of refurbished products. The most important measures involve legislation, including laws that offer manufacturers a bonus for building circularity into their products from the design stage on. Supporting any new legislation must be ambitious public procurement targets to purchase refurbished products, and publicity campaigns aimed at educating customers, so they better understand the environmental advantages of acquiring and using refurbished products. Customers should receive data on the environmental footprint of a refurbished device compared to a new one. They should also be made aware of the CO2 impact of the product they choose, with the incentive of an enviable “green” certificate available only through the purchase of a used device.

Accelerating Acceptance

QR codes are being considered as a means to accelerate the acceptance of refurbishment and improve the business case. Linked to a blockchain so the information they hold can’t be tampered with, QR

codes could be used to communicate environmental related information to users such as CO2 footprint or energy impact. They can also make it simple to retrieve information on a product’s history (e.g. date of installation, print usage and repair history). Taking printers as an example, the information stored on a QR code would enable a better assessment of the value of an old device and its spare parts and so ensure a better price when selling end-of-life printers to OEMs.

From QR codes to legislation and customer education, the argument for refurbishment needs to become compelling at each step of the supply chain to move the discussion away from being purely price driven.

Circularity Built-In

Aside from working on establishing reverse logistics processes and gearing up marketing efforts for refurbished products, the best approach for OEMs is to practice intentional engineering. They must design products in such a way that maximises their lifespan and increases their value beyond their end-of-life, thereby improving the cost and time efficiency of refurbishment. Products need to be modular so that an end-of-life device can be updated with the latest software and firmware and the latest security features easily integrated. Another area of improvement is the lifetime of spare parts which, as they represent one of the major refurbishment cost elements, should be designed for more durability and multiple lives. These actions would make the refurbishment business model far more attractive for OEMs, dealers, customers, and recyclers, giving it an acceleration boost to help ensure future growth.

With these boosting measures, the refurbished market should continue to grow in the coming years, which must be good for planet Earth.