Customer challenge

As the main public body responsible for safeguarding the environment in England and Wales, the Environment Agency must lead by example. With some 13,000 employees, it has a significant IT estate, and disposes of nearly 86 tonnes worth of IT items every year. These end-of-life assets must be disposed of in a manner that not only minimises landfill, security and environmental risks but also is cost effective.

Computacenter solution

The Environment Agency has been using Computacenter’s specialist IT asset disposal arm, RDC, since 1999. RDC collects thousands of used IT assets from the organisation each year. After testing them for functionality and safety and securely wiping any data, the devices are sold on the open market. Items that are unsafe or cannot be resold are broken down into their constituent components for recycling.

Results

All of the Environment Agency’s redundant IT assets are recycled or remarketed, with zero IT waste disposed to landfill. This has helped the Environment Agency to exceed European WEEE recycling targets and strengthen its reputation for leading by example in environmental excellence. The profit made from remarketing the Agency’s IT assets means that the service effectively paid for itself in 2007.