Social and ecological impact through reuse of IT hardware

• Securing three jobs for people with disabilities
• Savings of 407,780 kilograms of CO2 equivalents
• Primary energy consumption reduced by 1,584,219 kWh

Arvato Systems has been working with the non-profit IT company AfB for a long time. There, used hardware is refurbished, remarketed and thus also reused. As the largest non-profit IT company in Europe with 660 employees, AfB gGmbH is also committed to inclusion: currently around 50% of the team are people with disabilities. AfB has now been able to provide Arvato Systems with the certificate with the figures for 2023 – an impressive result.

As an IT service provider and partner for the digital transformation of companies and public administration, Arvato Systems relies on state-of-the-art technology. This also means that hardware has to be replaced at certain intervals. However, the corresponding devices do not simply end up as waste. Instead, Arvato Systems cooperates with the non-profit IT company AfB, where the hardware is refurbished and remarketed. This reduces the extraction of raw materials and the social and environmental impact of new IT production. If devices are no longer suitable for refurbishment, for example because they are damaged or simply too old, they are dismantled, used to recover spare parts where possible and otherwise handed over to certified companies for recycling.

Now AfB has provided Arvato Systems with the figures for 2023. The current certificate shows that the partnership has secured three jobs for people with disabilities. From an environmental point of view, Arvato Systems saved 407,780 kilograms of CO2 equivalents (= lower greenhouse gas emissions), 1,584,219 kWh of energy (= reduced primary energy consumption) and 137,582 kilograms of iron equivalents (= fewer raw materials consumed) from January 1 to December 31, 2023, according to AfB.

AfB’s work also contributes to seven Social Development Goals (SDGs). These goals for sustainable development agreed by the United Nations include, for example, "sustainable consumption and production" (SDG 12), "climate action" (SDG 13) and "reduced inequalities" (SDG 10).