Circular Resource Planning for IT
The ecological footprint of our digital life is growing quickly (currently around 2-4% of all European CO2 emissions). Furthermore, laptops, smartphones, and servers are energy-intensive products and have recycling rates close to zero. Circular strategies, like the reduce, repair, reuse and refurbishment of hardware, are essential to minimizing the footprint of digitization. RePlanIT will enable IT users, purchasers, and facility managers to make better, science-based decisions to improve the sustainability of their IT environment and double the lifetime of the hardware. The prototype will be tested in Field Labs at the Amsterdam Municipality and at other organizations.
Science-based circular choices
The result of the project is, firstly, a validated prototype of the RePlanIT system and underlying Dynamic Product Passport ontology. Secondly, with the research into preconditions for trust, behavior, and acceptance of circular IT, the project provides insight into how to include stakeholders so that they actually make circular choices.
Prototype development
So far, two prototypes were developed. The first is a prototype for business laptops, which are generally replaced after four years; the prototype shows alternative strategies and their environmental benefits. The prototype was tested with gemeente Amsterdam and Rijkswaterstaat, after which gemeente Amsterdam changed their ICT hardware policy: procured laptops must now be suitable for use for six years. The second prototype focused on server hardware. It aims to use machine learning on large sets of hardware usage data to spot chances for optimization of servers as well as server parks. Further development for this prototype will take place in 2024.