In 2020, New Zealand created 80,000t of e-waste – only 1600t (or 2%) of that was recycled. When it comes to computers, the majority of e-waste comes from business.

Because of this, Microsoft has launched a local repair service for its Surface range of laptops and tablets for business. Where previously Surface devices were swapped with replacements (and faulty devices exported for refurbishment), they are now repairable within New Zealand through The Laptop Company – the country’s first Surface Authorised Service Provider.

With 88% of overall CO2-equivalent emissions coming from initial device production and shipping, repairing otherwise-perfect devices is the single largest way to reduce CO2-e and e-waste, rather than chucking and replacing with new.

“We’re thrilled to be able to offer this service to our Microsoft customers in a really great step forward in terms of sustainability,” says The Laptop Company’s CEO, Mark Mayo. “By opting for repairs over replacements, the carbon footprint of broken or faulty devices is drastically reduced, as faulty units are no longer exported for remanufacture. Being able to repair Surface devices here in NZ means things like broken screens and ports will no longer result in people sending otherwise perfect devices to recycling or landfill.”
 
The Laptop Company will offer the repair service to fleet owners including through their Renew service, which takes broken and out-of-warranty devices, repairs them and reinjects them into fleets to reduce e-waste and unnecessary replacement device purchases.
 
“We’re pleased to be able to locally employ technicians. Our service centres in Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch, and Dunedin mean fleet owners can access prompt and reliable repairs and get their users back to business quickly,” says Mayo.

By extending the useful life of broken devices that are otherwise perfect, The Laptop Company is helping deliver Microsoft’s vision for reducing the carbon footprint of New Zealand workplaces.
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“Repairability is a huge issue worldwide, and the average New Zealander produces more than 21kg of e-waste each year. We believe everyone should have safe, reliable, and sustainable options to repair devices rather than sending them to landfill, but sending them to repairers offshore also had an environmental impact. This announcement by The Laptop Company means Kiwis can not only cut emissions by having their devices repaired, but have them repaired locally by a trusted partner, which is great news for our planet and for our customers too,” says Menisha Naran, Senior Marketing Lead, Surface Devices for Microsoft Asia.

About The Laptop Company
The Laptop Company is a multi-award-winning New Zealand-owned Microsoft Surface Partner. Based in Wellington but operating nationwide, The Laptop Company is a trusted supplier to corporate fleets and an official supplier of Surface devices to Government agencies through the All of Government IT Hardware Contract. The Surface ASP programme adds to The Laptop Company’s suite of whole-lifecycle Modern Fleet Management services, which includes asset and user-device management through TLC’s industry-leading Intune device management team.
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About Microsoft Surface:
Microsoft Surface is a line of innovative, premium-quality computing devices that seamlessly combine cutting-edge technology with versatile design for a diverse range of user needs. Designed for Windows 11 and Microsoft 365, the Surface range provides flagship performance and usability in the Modern Workplace. The new generation of Surface devices is the most repairable to date, reflecting the company's commitment to sustainability and customer satisfaction.

Find out more about Microsoft Surface at The Laptop Company >

Waste is nothing new, and neither is recycling. What has changed drastically in recent years is the massive amounts of electronic waste or e-waste we’re creating.

Because most of us only buy a new electronic device every 1-2 years, we don’t tend to worry about what happens to our old devices. We dutifully recycle plastic and glass on a daily basis, but we pay less attention to what should or could happen to our electronic devices when we’re finished with them.

When we consider the number of new devices our business rolls out every year, it’s no surprise that we produce upwards of 50 million tonnes of e-waste every year globally. Much of this e-waste is dumped illegally, and e-waste landfills are considered some of the most toxic places on Earth.

Thankfully, it doesn’t have to be this way, as our electronic devices can still be circulated back into use in one form or another. When we design devices correctly and pay more attention to the materials contained in each device, we can maximise the useful lifetime of everything we create.

This is the essence of what’s now known as the circular economy, and it’s a system that could offer your business new avenues for being both more sustainable and cost effective.

Closing the loop

The concept of a circular economy has been explored for decades by various academic groups and think tanks, but it reached broad appeal when the Ellen MacArthur Foundation partnered with McKinsey Research for their 2013 landmark report: Towards the Circular Economy: Economic and business rationale for an accelerated transition.

In the report, a new economic model is described which can decouple global economic development from finite resource consumption. By restoring and reusing products, components, and materials at their highest utility and value at all times, a circular economy:

• addresses mounting resource-related challenges for business and economies
• generates growth and creates jobs
• reduces environmental impacts, including carbon emissions.

Fast forward to the 2018 World Economic Forum, and HP joined the Platform for Accelerating the Circular Economy (PACE) and in 2019 extended their commitment to continue transitioning to a circular “make, use, reuse” approach that seeks to close the loop for their products. As a member of the Ellen MacArthur Foundation global commitment to address plastic waste at its source, HP now innovates to ensure the plastics they use are reusable or recyclable, while circulating plastics away from the environment and back into the economy.

From ownership to outcomes

Dovetailing with the movement towards the circular economy has been the popularity of everything-as-a-service (XaaS) models for IT investment. Driven by the switch from on-premise infrastructure to the cloud, organisations are enthusiastically adopting new models of IT investment that are less about owning assets, and more about getting an outcome.

One area that is ripe for this transition is in device management. Organisations want to equip users with the right hardware and support to get the job done, while improving end user productivity, IT efficiency, and cost predictability.

This is where HP Device as a Service (DaaS) offers a complete solution that combines hardware, support, insightful analytics, proactive management services for every stage of an organisation’s device lifecycle. Not only does it reduce the costs and complexity of owning and managing devices – it also contributes to a more sustainable operating model for businesses.

As a partner of HP and Intel®, we have assisted many organisations to reduce their waste and emissions, because the HP devices we supply are designed to be repaired. The Laptop Company is helping save around 150kg of carbon (plus manufacturing waste) for each device we repair instead of replacing with new. 

We are proudly delivering HP’s DaaS to help NZ businesses maximise the value and useful life of the devices used across their workforce. We can tailor a HP DaaS solution that enables you to drive productivity, reduce costs and complexity, all while creating a more sustainable future.