Estimate the carbon your organisation can avoid by securely refurbishing and reusing retired IT equipment instead of sending it to landfill and replacing it with new hardware.
Most of a device's lifetime carbon is locked in before it is ever switched on. For laptops, manufacturing accounts for around 80 percent of total lifecycle emissions, so keeping a working machine in service, or returning it to service through secure refurbishment, is the single largest carbon lever available. Enter your device counts below for an indicative estimate.
Enter how many of each device type you are retiring.
This calculator estimates the embodied manufacturing carbon avoided when a working device is securely refurbished and returned to service instead of being replaced with a new equivalent. It represents the reuse-first best case. Where a device is genuinely at end of life and can only be recycled, the carbon benefit is smaller and comes from recovered materials rather than avoided manufacturing.
Indicative factors used per device (kg CO2e of manufacturing, and approximate weight):
| Device | kg CO2e | Weight |
|---|---|---|
| Laptop / notebook | 300 | 2 kg |
| Desktop PC (tower) | 400 | 8 kg |
| Monitor / display | 150 | 4 kg |
| Server | 600 | 20 kg |
| Phone / tablet | 60 | 0.4 kg |
| Networking (switch / router) | 100 | 2 kg |
| Printer / copier | 100 | 10 kg |
Carbon factors are conservative averages drawn from published life cycle assessments, including the Circular Computing study of 230 laptops (around 331 kg CO2e per new laptop in production), academic LCA ranges for desktop and laptop computers, the ADEME carbon database figure of around 600 kg CO2e for server manufacturing, and published smartphone manufacturing figures of around 50 to 55 kg CO2e. Equivalents use approximately 0.25 kg CO2e per kilometre for an average passenger car, and around 21 kg CO2e absorbed per tree per year.
These figures are indicative and intended for planning and internal awareness. For audit-ready or ESG reporting, pair them with verified device weights and the disposal and data destruction certificates ITC provides with every collection. ITC processes e-waste in line with the AS/NZS 5377 standard.
ITC provides certified IT asset disposal with secure data destruction, refurbishment and reuse, and recycling in line with AS/NZS 5377, plus a disposition report you can use for your ESG and compliance records. Get a no-obligation quote for your Sydney business.
