Is Lenovo’s path to Net Zero working?

There’s no doubt that, environmentally speaking, Lenovo talks a good game. A recent blog post by Thibault Dousson, Lenovo’s Director for Services and Solution, gives a snapshot of the innovations powering its push towards a more sustainable business model. Of course, it’s easy to say the right things, but another to do them.

Lenovo’s belief in Green Growth

Dousson’s blog is refreshingly credible, opening with the importance of sustainability as a profitable business strategy. He cites a 2022 Capgemini report stating:

77% of companies say their sustainability initiatives actually increase customer loyalty, for example, and other perks can include lower costs and economic growth.

That’s a stat that will make most CEOs salivate, but the path to impactful sustainability is a timed gauntlet run across a tightrope forged with Vaseline-coated razor blades. Dousson’s post is a clarion call, reminding all that Lenovo is up for the green challenge and when it succeeds, everyone will win. The planet, customers and bottom line. For Lenovo, sustainability is a triple threat approach to growth.

Cut emissions. Simples!

Dousson emphasises that the largest sustainable changes are often a culmination of many smaller ones. in 2017, Lenovo announced its progress in reducing soldering temperatures to reduce carbon emissions and, in 2023, using ultra-light pallets to reduce shipping weights.

Dousson rightly quips that there is more to sustainability than “simply cutting emissions”. He’s (very) right and speaks from an experienced perspective as Lenovo’s recent battles to reduce GHGs has been tough. Its emissions for FY2023/24 across all three Scopes have reduced from 2022/23, which is impressive as it had climbed in some areas.

Lenovo’s Scope 1 figures are now 40% lower than its declared 2016 baseline, the benchmark for Net Zero targets, and are at their lowest in a decade.

Although there is an argument to say that as Scope 1 emissions are generated directly by an organisation, they should be the simplest to control, many tech firms are failing to reduce. We should commend Lenovo for its progress, and if it continues this trend, it may achieve its target of Net Zero by 2050.

How is Lenovo avoiding greenwashing?

In terms of action, Dousson reiterates Lenovo’s commitment to being Net Zero by 2050. In 2023, Lenovo announced the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi) had validated its plans. And this is important.

The SBTi provides a scientifically backed framework for reducing emissions in line with the Paris Agreement. This enhances corporate credibility by aligning goals with climate targets whilst ensuring that sustainability efforts are both ambitious and measurable.

For Lenovo to navigate the tightrope, this credibility is key. It attracts environmentally conscious investors, fosters trust among stakeholders and demonstrates leadership in sustainability.

What Dousson doesn’t mention is that the same Capgemini report mentions the significant gap between consumer trust and corporate sustainability claims. The report states that 49% of consumers say they don’t have any information to verify the sustainability claims of products and 44% simply do not trust sustainability claims made by organisations.

The need for education and transparency to combat greenwashing is clear and independent certifications can help buyers make informed choices about sustainable products. Perhaps the SBTi could be that certification as it’s certainly not shy about removing the validation from big names that don’t comply.

SBTi’s latest data set reports that Amazon, LG, Ricoh, Xerox, Microsoft, X and Yahoo have all been removed from the scheme for not renewing their commitments.

Plastic, Lenovo’s Net Zero poison

Dousson is keen to highlight Lenovo’s commitment to using recycled content in its products, particularly plastics and metals. At this point I find myself shuffling in my chair as he explains about PCCs (post-consumer content), CL-PCRs (closed-loop post-consumer recycled) and OBPs (Ocean bound plastics). Lenovo is also big on PIC (post-industrial content) too, but beneath these marketing friendly acronyms are plastics. Tonnes and tonnes of plastics.

Like other tech firms, Lenovo is using recycled plastics to reduce emissions. Many of the processes required to re-manufacture recycled content use less energy than the creation of virgin plastics but environmentally, the world’s plastic problem doesn’t really revolve around emissions.

Whereas Bousson and Lenovo talk about using plastics to achieve circularity, Greenpeace USA’s 2023 report Forever Toxic has a different spin:

Plastics are inherently incompatible with a circular economy.

Recent research from the University of Leeds discovered that during their lifecycle, plastics can absorb contaminants through contact and absorption of other volatile compounds. Heating plastics during the recycling process can cause them to mix and create new toxic chemicals that enter the recycled plastics chain.

Greenpeace USA warns of the human health implications of the practice:

Studies have shown that benzene (a carcinogen) can be created by mechanical recycling of PET#1 plastic, even with very low rates of contamination by PVC#3 plastic, resulting in the cancer-causing chemical being found in recycled plastics.

If that wasn’t worrying enough, the constant heating and impurities in the mix can lead to weaker recycled plastics. When these hit recycling systems, the brittleness scatters more microplastics into the air and water systems. A recent report from The Guardian highlights global research into the amount of microplastics accumulating in human organs, including the brain. Oh goody!

What can Lenovo do about its plastic problem?

The quick answer is to stop using plastic and therein lies the problem.

The primary environmental focus for global brands like Lenovo is towards emissions reduction, which is vital to keep the planet beneath the 1.5°C temperature rise set by the Paris Agreement in 2016.

Many, including Lenovo, are doing fabulous work in substituting plastics from packaging, but perhaps the driving force behind this development are legislative restrictions like the EU’s Directive on single-use plastics. Tech firms need to stop boasting about how much recycled plastic they’re using and urgently shift to sustainable zero-plastic solutions.

You can probably see the problem. What is a sustainable zero-plastic solution?

Reducing the technology sector’s dependence on plastics is a mind-numbingly complicated problem to solve but, as with single-use plastics, legal frameworks are (finally) being created to end plastic pollution. An announcement from the UN is due by the end of the year.

If there’s any sector that is capable of finding sustainable alternatives to plastics, it’s the tech industry led by companies like Lenovo.

Personally, I’m intrigued to see how a legal framework can inspire plastic-polluting corporates with vast computing resource, geniuses by the silo-load and several billion dollars in the petty cash tin to finally clean up their mess.

Lenovo: helping others hit Net Zero

Thibault Dousson’s post not only showcases Lenovo’s own progressive stance on environmental issues, but presents tools to help others be better. LISSA (Lenovo Intelligent Sustainability Solutions Advisor) is its AI-powered tool designed to help customers make data-driven sustainability choices by letting Lenovo make a sustainability assessment. Pretty cool.

Lenovo’s unfortunately acronym’d Asset Recovery Services, ARS, gives customers ways to manage hardware lifecycles from any brand. They’ll sweep up laptops, desktops, peripherals, enterprise hardware, phones and much more, taking them away for refurbishment or recycling.

These great initiatives form part of Lenovo’s Scope 3 emission requirements, which reflect the environmental footprint of supply chains. By offering these initiatives, Lenovo is trying to reduce its own footprint, which will also reduce the footprint of other companies along the chain.

It’s too easy to dismiss Dousson’s post as a corporate sales pitch to push Lenovo technologies. I’m sure that’s part of it, but the overriding message is that circularity is symbiotic and complex.

By exploring the potential of emission reduction opportunities, making conscious decisions, and implementing circular IT solutions into your tech stack, it’s easier to make inroads into achieving your sustainability ambitions.

Lenovo’s latest emission numbers are tremendously encouraging but to hit their targets, they need to work harder to reduce indirect emissions, which are largely controlled by entities beyond their direct control, up and down their supply chain. ARS and LISSA are great tools which could be very effective with widespread adoption.

Lenovo’s public acknowledgement that to help itself it needs to help others, is something we could all do with remembering from time to time.

Related reading:

• Inside Lenovo’s Budapest factory: making workstations more sustainable
• Lenovo makes ThinkPad T series laptops magnificently repairable at MWC 2024
• Lenovo at MWC 2024: every new launch