The integrated supply chain at Xerox Ltd is a large complex organisation which has many potential impacts on the environment. In order to better understand and reduce those impacts, an environmental bias has been introduced into the decision making process which allows more environmentally conscious decisions to be made. This paper details how the environmental bias was developed and how it can be used to provide both a measure of environmental performance for the whole supply chain, each functional element within the chain and for different product delivery scenarios. The environmental decision making tool construction is discussed and preliminary results show that it is the working life of a typical product which causes the biggest environmental impact.
Hewlett Packard discusses how companies can move from the conceptual ambiguity of the circular economy to operational reality. The development of the circular economy concept is described, in particular the extension from resource effi ciency: the importance of moving from the idea of 'consumers' to 'users'. Transitioning from a linear economy to a circular one will require disruptive innovation. For more than 30 years, HP technologies have led large scale changes in a wide range of markets. We describe how HP is designing products and services which meet and enable circular economy applications. The examples demonstrate how a major multinational company like HP can build on its long-held resource effi ciency principles to profi tably drive industry forward in the circular economy. It is clear that the 'new style of IT' enables many future and current circular economy initiatives, from car sharing; community garden/power tool sharing and developing further connections between networks -i.e. the 'sharing economy'. The 'internet of things' has huge potential to retain and grow control over dispersed resources. Through collaborative technologies and partnerships, and by engaging the innovation potential of others, HP looks to lead the proliferation of full system solutions that can allow inventors and communities to design and innovate surpassing what can be imagined today.
Summary
Business‐to‐business (B2B) electronics account for a significant volume of the electrical and electronic equipment (EEE) put on the market. Very little B2B waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) is reported as collected in the European Union (EU) in compliance with the WEEE Directive, which uses the policy principle of extended producer responsibility (EPR) to ensure that WEEE is managed correctly. This presents a barrier to parties looking for access to the waste. Company practice dictates the channels into which B2B WEEE flows following primary use. This article presents a study that engaged with company actors directly to get a better understanding of business information technology (IT) EEE asset management. Data were collected to determine the barriers current practice could present to the collection of B2B IT EEE at end of life and the implications of these for the development of policies and strategies for EPR. A questionnaire was developed and data were gathered from organizations in three EU countries—the United Kingdom, Germany, and France—stratified by size.
Some notable findings were that there are several routes by which end‐of‐life B2B WEEE can flow. The recycling and refurbishment of B2B IT units at end of use was shown to be commonplace, but it is likely that these units enter streams where they are not reported. The actors disposing of their units did not have information on the management or disposition of these streams. It is concluded that to achieve the goals of EPR for B2B IT WEEE, the networks and the operational practices of these streams need to be better understood when developing strategies and policies.
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