Lenovo is the global leader in unit sales of both new and refurbished notebook and personal computers, commanding estimated market shares of 27 percent and 18 percent, respectively.
Increasingly, the company’s corporate buyers aren’t picking secondhand information technology (IT) gear just for the lower price tag. With that in mind, Lenovo created a methodology that demonstrates its certified refurbished models carry a product carbon footprint that’s often half as intensive as new editions. Its claims were assured independently by Anthesis Group, using ISO 14067 guidelines for calculating the greenhouse gas emissions associated with used products.
That data has become a differentiator for Lenovo customers that buy a significant volume of information technology and that also have emissions reduction goals, said James Pennington, director of global sustainability services at Lenovo. “Being able to put numbers like this in front of customers really pushed the cost-of-carbon side of the argument,” he said.
Customer interest
Lenovo launched its certified refurbished device initiative in March 2024. It added the greenhouse gas emissions assessments in July, starting with 100 models in its ThinkPad notebook computer series. Corporate IT procurement teams are increasingly including requests for emissions information for both secondhand and new models as part of the bidding process on large deals, Pennington said.
“We wanted to have the same depth of data on the carbon side of the ledger as we did on the cost side,” he said.
Lenovo already provided that information for new models, so that enterprise customers can use it for their own greenhouse gas emissions estimates. It turned to the Global Circularity Protocol, developed by the World Business Council for Sustainable Development and the One Planet Network, to create a way of measuring the refurbished ones. Among the criteria considered:
- Transporting the devices from the collection facility to the refurbishing location
- Activities such as inspection, parts replacement, data wiping and quality checks
- The footprint of spare parts
- Average use scenarios, including the region or electricity grid where the computer will most often be used
In one simulated scenario, Lenovo examined the potential impact of replacing 30 percent of a consulting firm’s notebook computers with certified, refurbished models. Using the secondhand gear would reduce the company’s IT costs by 8 percent and cut IT–related emissions by 15 percent, according to Lenovo’s calculations.
The company plans to review the methodology on an annual basis, in order to include the most recent emissions factors. It will release additional footprint scores each quarter, as new products are rolled out. The data for each product carbon footprint will also be reviewed and recalculated annually.