In 2019, the global generation of e-waste was 53.6 metric tons, according to the “Global Transboundary E-waste Flows Monitor 2022,” report published by the United Nations Institute for Training and Research.

Only 17% of electrical and electronic equipment disposal was in an “environmentally sound manner,” the report noted. In addition, the fate of 83%, or 44.3 metric tons, is unaccounted for, meaning those devices and assets were likely dumped, burned, traded or recycled without respect to compliance standards.

Company tech is a tremendous source of e-waste, with 89% of companies recycling less than 10% of their IT hardware, according to the 2021 report “Sustainable IT: Why it’s time for a Green Revolution for your organization’s IT” from research and advisory firm Capgemini.

That low figure may be a direct result of failing to create a culture of green IT.

Forty-one percent of organizations that responded provide sustainable awareness training to their employees, while 31% incentivize employees to adopt more sustainable behavior in their use of IT services, according to Capgemini’s report.

Pressure is building for these figures to improve.

CIOs and IT leaders will have to get on board with sustainable IT asset management — if they’re not already — for several reasons, said AJ Witt, industry analyst at The ITAM Review, an online community for ITAM professionals. First, customers want to do business with companies that follow sustainability best practices. Employees also want to work for sustainable organizations.

“Also, if we’re heading into a recession, the first thing we do is start cutting costs,” Witt said. “You need to get to grips with those costs, and one way of doing that is making sure you’re buying a sustainable kit that’s not being replaced every two years.”

Gathering this data can be more difficult in a hybrid work model, he said.

“The challenge can be, in this new world of remote working, keeping that same level of visibility,” Witt said.

However, ITAM tools have started to take hybrid and remote work models into account, he said.

Good data from hardware manufacturers is still lacking, Witt said. When enterprises deployed CRT monitors, it was easy to determine whether they were Energy Star-compliant thanks to the TCO certification sticker on the unit.

“Having that level of data in our tools to know that this laptop [from ABC manufacturer] is 10% more efficient than the laptop from [XYZ manufacturer] really lets you make informed purchasing decisions,” Witt said. “Your procurement team can think not just about how much per unit this is going to cost me in terms of money, but the total cost.”

Shiny new devices are exciting to people, making the concept of a prolonged IT asset lifecycle challenging.

But getting buy-in becomes less of an issue when tech teams can keep devices operating at the level of performance required for employees to do their jobs, Raja said. Employees — especially members of the younger generation — are supportive of sustainability efforts.

Employee buy-in also increases when companies communicate the reasons behind initiatives such as sustainable IT asset management, Raja said. When issuing used laptops to interns, for example, each worker receives a note explaining the following: