Did you know that many laptops labelled as sustainable have a comparatively high carbon footprint? Although manufacturers produce them using a proportion of recycled materials, they fall short in other areas, such as repairability and the ability to perform upgrades. This means that if stop working after a few years of use, you have to recycle them completely.
This is one of many pitfalls of green IT, which we will take a closer look at in this article. After all, consistent, sustainable IT hardware management must pursue several approaches simultaneously.
The environmental impact of our hardware: what exactly is the problem?
Anyone who wants to participate in the digital world needs a digital device. This could be a notebook, smartphone, desktop PC, tablet or smart glasses with internet access. Regardless of how this hardware is designed, it is always based on processors, for which we need semiconductors.
Relatively few locations in the world manufacture semi-conductors. Around two-thirds of semiconductors come from TSMC, which is based in Taiwan. The US has been trying to catch up with manufacturers such as Qualcomm for several years. German and European semiconductor manufacturers plan to up production to a competitive level by the end of 2030.
While this may have economic advantages, the production of semiconductors is questionable from an environmental perspective. Using a ‘calculator’ for the environmental impact of semiconductor production, a German research team shows how much energy is required by the industry on which our entire digitalisation is based. In addition to resources such as silicon, germanium and chromium, semiconductor production also consumes lots of water.
Companies need ultra-pure water to produce wafer discs, which they then treat in a complex process. Because of this, the semiconductor industry exacerbates water shortages in many areas.
The various components for computers, tablet PCs and similar devices are produced in different countries. The Nager-IT association was able to trace the supply chain for a simple computer mouse. In doing so, the association discovered that a simple computer mouse is made up of 33 different raw materials from countless intermediaries. Many of these materials are produced in countries with precarious working conditions. The CO2-intensive extraction of rare raw materials is also poisoning entire areas and polluting groundwater in water-scarce regions.
When we look at calculations for the carbon footprint of our digital world, hardware generally tops the list as the largest source of greenhouse gas. And yet the electronics industry is booming as demand for end devices and data centres grows.
So, we’re either producing too much computer hardware, or we’re doing so while over-extracting without a consistent circular economy. There are solutions to both problems in the world of green IT.
Modularity, repairability and lean software
In wealthy countries such as Germany, the US and the UK, barely any households don’t have at least one computer or smartphone. In 2022, over 92 percent of German households had either a PC or mobile. And worldwide, around 245 million new computers were sold in 2024.
Most of these devices have the potential to be reused, preventing new computer purchases. Free operating systems, more modern modules in the form of hard drives, RAM sticks and processors, replacing batteries and rechargeable batteries all facilitate reuse.
No idea about technology? Visit a Repair Café!
If your computer is broken but you don’t know anything about technology, check for your nearest Repair Café.
Repair Cafés are places where people meet to repair and maintain the things they own. In addition to clothing, furniture and other items, you will usually also find technology repair set-ups.
For the city of Berlin, there is repami, a network that brings together many repair cafés. Similar services are also available in other cities.
In particular, desktop PCs and business products can be upgraded and repaired. This is because many companies see repair as a basic requirement for purchasing or renting IT hardware. So, as a first rule for green IT, it’s definitely more sustainable to continue using older hardware.
Permacomputing consistently implements precisely this approach. The key question here is how we can maintain our existing IT infrastructure so it meets our current performance requirements. Or, conversely, how we can adapt our performance requirements through economical programming so that older hardware can remain in operation.
The computing power required by operating systems and programmes has grown in recent decades. The Windows operating system, for example, has grown tenfold in size in around 30 years. However, Windows 11 does not offer anywhere near ten times the functionality. Even with Windows 95, it was already possible to surf the Internet, write emails and watch films.
Companies such as Microsoft and Apple no longer programme their operating systems as ‘economically’ as they did 30 years ago. This is because computing power has become much cheaper since the 1990s.
Economy also means greater sustainability
Users have followed this trend. It’s now normal to stream a film in the highest possible quality on a small mobile phone screen. Whether users actually notice a difference in quality is debatable.
9 tips for sustainable PC use
1. Use dark modes to reduce power consumption.
2. Shut down PCs and laptops.
3. Regularly clean up data on online storage devices.
4. Edit documents offline instead of in the cloud.
5. Disable automatic backups of photos and data.
5. Download music and videos instead of streaming them via mobile networks.
6. Use ad blockers or purchase apps to minimise tracking and advertising.
7.Reduce streaming quality.
8. Buy a projector instead of a television next time.
9.Use AI chatbots with caution.
We also don’t think twice about buying a new smartphone when our mobile phone contract expires. We have trained ourselves out of the thriftiness that used to be necessary in the IT sector, ignoring the consequences.
In 2025, people are increasingly concerned about the energy demand of data centres and their high water consumption. While it’s positive that people are recognising this problem, our IT use in recent decades has been problematic. People in the Global South suffer from the consequences of digitalisation in the rich countries of the Global North. In recent years, the AI boom has significantly exacerbated this power imbalance.
Refurbishment could save significant CO2
Many of the issues mentioned—the resource hunger of new electrical appliances and the problem of electronic waste—can be counteracted through refurbishment. This involves the professional reconditioning of electrical appliances and their subsequent resale. The reconditioned products are usually sold with a right of return and a new warranty.
Many refurbished devices come from framework agreements with companies or educational institutions. They often rent notebooks and PCs from IT service providers for specific periods of time and then replace them with new devices at the end of the contract. Suppliers such as Green-IT or Refurbed sell refurbished notebooks and PCs in the UK. Used devices and refurbished products are also becoming increasingly common in retail stores.
Recycling is also part of green IT
Even though we recommend continuing to use devices from an ecological perspective, consistent recycling is also part of green IT. When hardware is defective or simply cannot be upgraded anymore, it should be recycled as a source of raw materials for new devices.
According to estimates, we can recover 70 kilograms of copper, 140 grams of silver and 30 grams of gold from one tonne of old computers and notebooks. If the tonne of electronic waste consists of disused smartphones, the figures are even higher: 240 grams of gold, two and a half kilograms of silver and 92 kilograms of copper.
And although electronic waste is such a rich source of raw materials, there are around 2.3 million old smartphones lying around in German households. Supermarkets in Germany with a sales area of 800 square metres or more must accept old devices and send them for recycling. So why is the recycling of electrical appliances failing?
One crucial aspect may be that we store extremely sensitive data on our computer hardware. However, due to the lack of modularity, we cannot simply remove hard drives or damage them to such an extent that the data is no longer readable.
How can we ensure a green digital future?
Growing e-waste, carbon emissions from AI, data centre water usage—is rampant digitalisation compatible with a healthy planet? Our latest project explores how digital tools and services can be developed with sustainability in mind.
Sustainable devices should live several lifecycles
German smartphone manufacturer Shiftphone specialises in sustainable electronics. During a lecture at the University of Osnabrück, which RESET also attended, Shiftphone summarised the challenge of green IT as follows:
“The product cycle of electronic devices is usually represented as a timeline. It begins with production and, in the best case scenario, ends with a cycle—this is precisely the representation we want to change.” – Leon von Zepelin / Shiftphone
Shiftphone proposes representing the life of an electronic device in several cycles. Although recycling is still the desired end of life, in the best case scenario there are several cycles of recycling and reuse throughout the life of the device.
Modularity, improved repairability, the reuse and resale of electronics and the adaptability of installed software are all strategies that can transform the life cycle of electronics from one cycle to several.
