How Consumer Behaviour Is Helping To Drive Circularity
By Greg Smith, Executive Director and General Manager, EMEA Services and Solutions Group
With the need to tackle global challenges such as climate change, biodiversity loss, waste, and pollution, circularity is becoming increasingly important for businesses and organisations around the world.
France has set the standard when it comes to legislation shaping the use of refurbished devices, and Lenovo is also rolling out circular solutions such as Certified Refurbished in other countries around Europe. Circularity is also important for individuals, however, and consumer behaviour can help to influence organisations to pick a more sustainable path.
According to research from Deloitte[1], “Companies from every industry are facing increasing calls from their consumers, investors and employees to play a greater role in accelerating the transition to more sustainable business practices. As they do so, they need to manage the risks and seize the opportunities created, from enhanced reputation and new revenue streams, to better risk management and business continuity.”
The many benefits of circularity
Sustainability targets should not be constrained by compliance. It’s important that companies realise the value that effective ESG (Environmental, Social and corporate Governance) initiatives can deliver to any organisation. As Deloitte explains, sustainability initiatives can also achieve efficiencies through cutting waste, shortening the supply chain, and saving energy.
Your technology partner can play a key role when it comes to ESG initiatives and circularity, and Lenovo’s Certified Refurbished solution is a great example. Giving older devices a new lease of life, Certified Refurbished includes our best-in-class PC and Servers refurbished, certified, and their lifespan extended– all while retaining high levels of quality, security, and performance.
Certified Refurbished delivers quality, reliability, security, and we reuse original packaging where possible. Along with supporting the circular economy, refurbished devices can also prove substantially cost-effective than new. These are some of the direct benefits of circular solutions, but there are also other reasons to choose a more sustainable path.
Building reputations and opening new revenue streams
As explained in Deloitte’s The Sustainable Consumer 2023 report, “The application of circular principles offers significant potential for organisations to achieve commercial and strategic objectives including cost reduction, value chain resilience, new revenue streams and net-zero targets.”
“Consumers are shifting their spending toward products with ESG-related claims,” a report from McKinsey and NielsenIQ explains, and a recent study by NielsenIQ found that 78 per cent of US consumers say that a sustainable lifestyle is important to them.
It’s increasingly clear that consumers care about sustainability. Companies must demonstrate commitment to sustainability by making real changes within their operations to make a genuine impact. Circularity is simply one step on that journey, with solutions such as Certified Refurbished organisations can embrace more sustainable practices without compromise on productivity.
The role of education, awareness and incentives
Deloitte’s study emphasises the need for businesses to lead with transparency and engage in clear, honest communication about their sustainability practices. This transparency builds trust and encourages consumers to make deliberate, sustainable choices.
Education also has an important role to play, helping organisations to make more informed choices. Along with helping to drive customer trust and brand loyalty, this can also lead to greater efficiencies, cultural change, and long-term economic benefits.
Lenovo can support our customers when it comes to education. Our sustainability workshops make it possible to discuss the specific needs of the customer and find the most efficient ways to meet their sustainability targets.
Our focus is to first help reduce emissions resulting from IT purchase as much as possible and then offset remaining inevitable emissions. Our workshops consider everything from sustainable packaging solutions to more sustainable shipping, secure asset recovery services, device lifecycle extensions, and flexible as-a-service solutions such as Lenovo TruScale.
When it comes to creating a more sustainable society, extending product lifecycles and using what we already have at our disposal is a great place to start.
[1] Deloitte – The Sustainable Consumer 2023
