RePlanIT: Building data-based tools to champion circular IT

This article was written by and originally published in Dutch on Circulaire IT.

RePlanIT is a consortium that includes the AMS Institute, lifecycle management supplier Aliter Networks, part of the Circular IT Group , and design company IDEAL&CO. Its goal is to extend the lifespan of IT devices—starting with laptops and servers.

For now, it is still the standard for organizations, both government and business, to replace their laptops and servers after a fixed period. For laptops it is often three to four years. According to researchers, this can take much longer. "For example, you see that the municipality of Amsterdam has changed its policy. They now want to do that with their laptops for six years. But at Rijkswaterstaat, it is still four years."

Barriers to circular ambitions

The reasons behind this are more complicated than the technical lifespan of devices: support from the manufacturer is essential, as is keeping employees satisfied, for example. According to Iegor Trieshchov , Project Manager Sustainable IT solutions at Aliter Networks, many legitimate barriers exist to making laptops last longer. "They need to get updates for their equipment. Companies do not want and cannot take risks." Lack of confidence regarding refurbishment parts and financial barriers are all hurdles that managers think they have to overcome.

To change this, decision makers must have the right data. "You cannot put your circular ambition into practice if you do not know the impact of using refurbished laptops or making new laptops last longer," says Ingrid de Pauw , expert in circular and sustainable product development at IDEAL&CO. Together with colleague Eliza Noordhoek, she is involved in calculating circularity and the development of the RePlanIT tools. "If employees can continue to use their current laptop for longer, possibly with an upgrade,they'll likely find this an excellent option," says Ingrid.

Two tools for lifespan extension

RePlanIT's two tools are an answer to these issues. The first RePlanIT tool helps select laptops. Buyers and IT managers can use the tool to compare different scenarios.

The effects on CO2, circularity and e-waste afre immediately visible, and give decision makers extra ammunition to improve their policy on these points. Eliza would ideally like more information from OEMs to improve accuracy. Iegor agrees. "At the beginning, we had to work with limited amounts of data. After all, you won't find data on every street corner. But we can now build the next tool."

The second tool, whose development has recently entered the testing phase, is aimed at data servers. Unlike laptops, it is not only how long the device is used that matters, but also how intensively. "The great thing is that we put all the data in a product passport," says Menno. "You see what a server does, and you get a complete overview of its usage history." The researchers at TU Delft have developed a so-called ontology for this purpose, which makes a dynamic passport possible.

Reducing datacenter waste

In collaboration with a data center party, data was collected for this tool from a server park over a period of time, in collaboration with consortium member WCoolIT . "It turned out that at no time did the park use more than 50% of its computing power and available memory," says Menno. "Some advice that you can always give is to always run servers in Balance mode, which already results in a saving of 10%." That kind of data can provide important insights for data centers to optimize their operations further – thus making them greener.

In the future, it will only become more important to include ESG in reporting. The CSRD - the reporting obligation for companies on non-financial information - is just the beginning. "IT managers may have to deal with a CO2 budget in the future, for example," says Iegor. "This will apply to all business units, and it will impact the budget. The RePlanIT tools can help you with this."