HP, DiData tackle Aussie e-waste
Dimension Data and HP have both launched e-waste-related products today, while Fujitsu released a Green IT report that found there was a relative lack of green IT policies across large organisations in Australia, the United States of America, the United Kingdom and India.
(Credit: Mobile Muster/AMTA)
Dimenson Data launched an eWaste Management Service, which disposes of products and their packaging, recycling them where possible. It's being offered as an option on Dimension Data maintenance contracts, or hardware refresh projects.
There are no minimum volume requirements, according to the company. Costs are calculated per kilo or per unit. The average recycling rate is 98 per cent.
The company is also offering destruction of storage equipment to protect organisation data, using methods such as data wiping and degaussing.
"Now more than ever, it is important to have an effective strategy in place to ensure that when obsolete equipment leaves the building, valuable data does not," Merle Singer, Dimension Data's global director for sustainability, said in a statement.
Dimension Data has been practising on its own organisation, disposing of and recycling over 22 tonnes of its electronic waste over the past 12 months.
HP also announced its own small- to medium-sized business (SMB) e-waste campaign today, offering cash rebates for some models (up to $75 for notebook and desktop PCs, and up to $150 for HP workstation PCs) and free recycling, as long as the businesses replace their PCs before 31 October.
The obvious win for HP is getting companies to buy new machines.
"We believe 2010 is truly the year of the refresh. As such, we want to encourage SMBs to look at the new notebook, desktop and workstation PCs we have launched in the Australian market," Chee-Mei Gan, director of product marketing, HP South Pacific (Australia and New Zealand), said in a statement.
Despite this show of support for e-waste models, Fujitsu today released a report that said action has been minimal on the green IT front in organisations.
The UK performed the best of the four countries examined, then the US and then Australia. Only India had the worst green credentials, Fujitsu said.
The greenest areas of the industry were in datacentres, networking communications and cloud, the report said. Personal computing and printing were also doing well, Fujitsu said.
However, measurement of "even the most basic aspect of IT department power consumption and billing" was lacking, according to the Japanese company.
Using IT to lower the footprint outside the IT function was also minimal, Fujitsu said, suggesting that businesses aren't using enabling technologies to reduce their footprint.