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September 14, 2026
A circular economy is about using resources responsibly -extending product lifetimes and keeping materials in use for as long as possible. But how does this translate to the practical reality of buying and using IT products? Based on insights from circularity experts, procurement professionals and IT brands, this article brings together tips that help you take the next step in circular IT.
Leverage your purchasing power
1. Be clear that you expect circular solutions from your suppliers. State in the procurement process that circular products and services are required, and connect these expectations to your organization’s climate and circularity goals where relevant. Clear customer demand is a strong driver for more sustainable product development.
2. Look for suppliers that offer long-lasting products, as well as repair, upgrade, reuse, and resale services that help extend product lifetimes. Common priorities can help support your circular and sustainable IT management goals. Make use of pre-competitive dialogs and RFIs to gather information.
3. Include circularity criteria in your procurement policies and specifications. For example, set requirements for durability and repairability to extend product lifetimes, and for the reduction or elimination of hazardous substances to improve material recyclability.
4. Reduce environmental impact by choosing pre-owned products and sourcing from reputable refurbishment and remanufacturing providers.
5. Don’t overestimate the environmental and financial benefits of upgrading to a more energy-efficient device. In many cases, potential savings are outweighed by negative impacts from manufacturing.
6. Product-as-a-service solutions are becoming more common. Keep in mind that leasing services are not automatically circular. You must include circular criteria, just as you do when buying products.
7. Ask your supplier for an extensive warranty that covers service, repairs and battery replacements during the expected product lifetime. This provides greater cost predictability and gives IT brands an incentive to design more durable, high-quality devices.
Use your IT products longer
8. Use your IT products longer-it’s one of the most effective ways to reduce climate impact, save natural resources and minimize e-waste. Repair and upgrade them when needed instead of replacing them.
9. Think long-term when you purchase an IT product -buy a high-performance product that has enough capacity to meet your needs for several years.
10. Make sure that the products you buy are designed for a long life. They must be durable, upgradeable, and easy to repair.
11. Pay attention to battery life. Many portable IT products are discarded because the battery has lost its capacity to hold a charge. Make sure the battery is high-quality and easy to replace.
12. Extend battery life by keeping the product 20-80 percent charged as often as possible and avoid leaving it in hot spaces.
13. Implement take-back programs where used IT products are returned to the supplier for refurbishment, reuse, resale, or responsible recycling.
14. Keep an eye out for old habits and policies that stand in the way of circular practices. For example, short device replacement cycles, policies that require employees to always receive brand-new equipment, or procurement routines that prioritize the lowest upfront cost over durability, repairability, and reuse.
Involve the rest of your organization
15. Assess the current situation to identify where and how circular practices can be introduced. A good start can be to interview people involved in IT purchasing and management.
16. Be aware of how circular IT practices may affect employees, and involve them early in the process. Create an internal policy for circular IT management that balances environmental responsibility with the practical needs of different roles and work tasks.
17. Define clear incentives by identifying the benefits of circularity, such as reduced climate impact, less e-waste, improved operational performance, and lower costs for IT management.
18. Set up KPIs to track the impact of your circular IT practices. For example, monitor annual e-waste, carbon footprint per employee, and the share of recycled materials. For products certified to TCO Certified, you can find verified data in Report Generator.
19. Cooperation between functions is vital and will help you make faster progress. Engage decision-makers and specialists from IT, procurement, sustainability, finance, facilities and communications in regular discussions on circularity.
20. Knowledge of sustainability issues can motivate both management and employees to drive change. Ensure you are well informed about the climate impact of IT products, hazardous substances in products and production, resource use, e-waste, and supply chain risks.
21. Ensure that hazardous e-waste is handled responsibly and not illegally exported. Work with qualified waste management providers that manage products safely and in compliance with regulations.
22. Segment users within your organization based on their IT needs. This will help you optimize the use of devices and identify opportunities for product reuse.
23. Recognize that change is a long-term process. Maintain a long-term perspective and allow time and space for behavioral change.
Give your IT products a second life
24. Set up routines for collecting used IT products so they can be reused or recycled instead of ending up forgotten in a drawer. For example, make sure old devices are handed in before new ones are given out.
25. Don’t miss the opportunity to recover value from IT products once they no longer meet your organization’s needs. Explore resale through reputable refurbishment or remanufacturing partners, and consider charitable donations or resale to employees.
26. Protect your data-use software for safe data removal, or ensure that the company that you sell products to will manage this securely.
27. Ask your reseller for proof that the product has been refurbished or remanufactured and sold to a new user, so it isn’t discarded prematurely.
28. If you want to resell your products, do it as soon as you stop using them. They lose value each month they are kept in storage.
29. Include chargers and cables when you sell your IT products-otherwise new ones may need to be made, reducing both the environmental benefits and the value you get.
Join forces with others
30. If the main aim is to establish a circular economy, there is no way to close loops on your own. You need to partner with stakeholders throughout the life cycle to get things done.
31. Don’t be afraid to reach out for help. Join networks, learn from others, and share what you know.
32. Keep in mind that even the smallest contributions are valuable. It doesn’t matter so much what the first step is as long as you take it.
33. Team up with other buyers to increase your purchasing power and influence. Using a credible sustainability certification, such as TCO Certified, means you stand behind the same set of criteria as thousands of other purchasers worldwide. It makes your work with circular IT more efficient and saves your resources.
More details at TCO website.
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September 7, 2026
Public procurement represents one of the world's most powerful tools for driving sustainable development. Every day, governments purchase food for schools, hospitals, public institutions and social protection programmes-creating an opportunity to improve nutrition, strengthen local economies, support smallholder producers, and reduce environmental impacts.
The One Planet Network is excited to announce the launch of the Global Framework for Action: Using Public Food Procurement as a Strategic Driver of Sustainable Food Systems.
Developed by UNEP and FAO under the One Planet Network Sustainable Public Procurement and Sustainable Food Systems Programmes, the Framework provides governments with a practical and flexible roadmap to design and implement sustainable public food procurement policies tailored to their national priorities. It is built around three guiding principles and a menu of 14 actions that help translate policy ambitions into practical implementation.
The Framework is the result of a two-year collaborative process involving governments, procurement practitioners, producers, civil society and development partners from around the world, demonstrating the power of partnership in advancing sustainable public procurement.
The Framework is now open for endorsement from technical and policy organizations, as well as national and local government. For more details on endorsement, please contact paulina.boechat@un.org. We look forward to supporting countries as they use public purchasing to build more resilient, inclusive and sustainable food systems.
Explore the Framework at One Planet Network website.
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August 31, 2026
At the 2026 High-Level Political Forum, Ms Annika Lindblom, Chair of the 10YFP Board, presented the 10YFP Annual Progress Report, highlighting practical delivery across the One Planet Network in 2025. The report recorded 86 new or updated sustainable consumption and production policy instruments, a 14 per cent increase from the previous reporting cycle, alongside progress in sustainable public procurement, consumer information, skills development, tourism and food systems. Her statement called for greater investment in SDG12 and stronger integration of sustainable consumption and production and circularity into national climate, biodiversity and economic strategies.
Learn full story at here.
Download the report at one planet network website.
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August 24, 2026
To help bridge the technical gap in climate-mitigation finance, Green Initiative presents this guide for financial institutions and SMEs as one component of a broader architecture for CMF tracking and deployment. Focused on GHG emissions measurement, reporting, verification and the planning and selection of mitigation projects, the guide is designed to accelerate the flow of mitigation resources in line with globally recognized decarbonization strategies. It provides a structured set of concepts, principles, and methodologies to help FIs and SMEs.
This Practical Guide for Financial Institutions and Small and Medium-sized Enterprises was developed by Green Initiative and in support of the Glasgow Declaration Initiative on Climate Action in Tourism.
More details at One Planet Network knowledge center.
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August 17, 2026
Ecolabels and sustainable certification schemes are powerful instruments for advancing global sustainability commitments. By setting robust sustainability performance criteria across value chains, they incentivize best practices, improve transparency, and can expand market access for more sustainable products and services. For consumers, ecolabels and sustainable certification schemes are key enablers to support more sustainable consumption.
Yet, despite their potential, these tools face challenges in developing robust criteria for rapidly evolving sustainability priorities, such as biodiversity protection, climate mitigation, and pollution reduction. These areas are inherently complex, context-specific, and still evolving in terms of metrics and data availability. As a result, translating these “trend” topics into measurable and verifiable criteria remains difficult.
This document aims to support ecolabels and sustainability certification schemes in identifying and considering relevant aspects related to climate, biodiversity, and pollution in the development of criteria for products and services across four high-impact sectors: building and construction, food, textiles, and electronics/ICT. The guidance promotes a lifecycle and holistic approach, highlighting priority areas—referred to as “hotspots”—within each value chain.
The intended audience of these guidelines includes ecolabels and other sustainable certification schemes, as well as stakeholders seeking to integrate environmental criteria for specific products, such as sustainable public procurement programs and initiatives aimed at enhancing transparency and facilitating access to consumer sustainability information in product supply chains, including Digital Product Information Systems.
This guidance was compiled under the Consumer Information Programme of the One Planet Network and the EcoAdvance project, jointly implemented by the German Agency for International Cooperation (GIZ), the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), and the Öko-Institute. It is funded by the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Climate Action, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety (BMUKN) through the International Climate Initiative (IKI). The project promotes synergies between ecolabelling and public procurement, fostering more sustainable production and consumption practices and contributing to environmental conservation, biodiversity protection, and climate change mitigation.
More details at UNEP One Planet Network knowledge center.
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August 10, 2026
The rapid rise of the "olfactory economy" has brought fragrance products into a wide array of public and private spaces. Yet the volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and other pollutants they continuously release are posing a growing, often overlooked threat to consumers' respiratory health.
In January 2026, a pivotal group standard-Limit of Harmful Substances in Daily-use Fragrances, issued by the Shanghai Indoor Environmental Purification Industry Association-took effect. For the first time, it extends safety requirements beyond the product itself to cover the entire lifecycle, establishing strict limits on major health hazards, including total volatile organic compounds (TVOC), formaldehyde, benzene compounds, PM2.5, and five heavy metals.
Now, the China Environmental United Certification Center (CEC) has joined forces with the association to carry out professional evaluations of fragrance products in line with this new standard. Through authoritative third-party certification, the collaboration aims to give consumers clear, trustworthy safety labels, while steering the industry away from marketing-led growth toward technology-driven innovation. The ultimate goal: to help companies earn market trust through demonstrably safer products, and to genuinely protect every breath we take.
More details at one planet network knowledge center.
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August 3, 2026
Recently, CEC (China Environmental United Certification Center) granted the first “Zero-Waste Factory” evaluation certificate in the electrical and electronics sector of China to Motorola (Wuhan) Mobile Technology Communications Co., Ltd., a manufacturing base under Lenovo Group. This landmark recognition underscores how leading electronics manufacturers are advancing circularity, product life cycle responsibility, and sustainable operations aligned with consumer values.
The certification marks a significant step in promoting “Zero-Waste City Cells”, such as zero-waste factories and supply chains, which directly contribute to reducing environmental footprints and enhancing resource efficiency-key concerns for eco-conscious consumers. By obtaining this credential, Lenovo’s Motorola facility demonstrates tangible commitment to sustainable production practices, strengthening its brand image as an environmentally responsible enterprise.
CEC, in collaboration with the China Household Electrical Appliances Research Institute, has been developing standards and evaluation frameworks for zero-waste facilities since 2024, ensuring rigorous, industry-relevant benchmarks. The partnership combines technical expertise with certification authority, offering credible validation of corporate sustainability efforts that consumers can trust.
For consumers, this achievement signals greater transparency and accountability in electronics manufacturing, linking product purchases to broader environmental benefits like reduced waste generation and enhanced material recycling. It highlights how corporate sustainability initiatives can drive tangible progress toward national green goals, including Beautiful China construction.
Moving forward, CEC plans to scale up zero-waste and low-carbon certification services across more sectors, refine professional evaluation frameworks and further support sustainable consumption and production.
More details at One Planet Network website.
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July 27, 2026
The Global Framework for Action - Using Public Food Procurement as a Strategic Driver of Sustainable Food Systems supports governments in using public food procurement as a strategic tool to promote more sustainable food production and consumption patterns. Developed through a multi-stakeholder process led by UNEP and FAO, the Framework provides a flexible roadmap for integrating social, economic, and environmental sustainability objectives into food procurement systems.
Organized around three core principles, enabling governance and regulatory framework, strengthening public demand-side capacity, and supporting inclusive and resilient supply chains, the Framework offers a practical “menu” of actions that countries can adapt to their national and local contexts. By shaping public demand for food, SPFP can contribute to healthier diets, stronger local economies, biodiversity conservation, reduced pollution, and lower greenhouse gas emissions across food systems.
More details at one planet network knowledge center.
Download the report at one planet network website.
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July 20, 2026
Lately, the report of Practices Collection-Innovative Application on Carbon Label and Carbon Reduction Integrated Supply Chain Management was jointly released within the collaboration between International Green Purchasing Network (IGPN) and the One Planet Network Sustainable Public Procurement (SPP) Programme, which was produced by IGPN Secretariat-China Environmental United Certification Center (CEC).
The Practices Collection brings together innovative supply chain practices from seven organizations across four countries: China, the United States, Thailand, and the Netherland. By summarizing practical experience and demonstrating phased achievements, the Practices Collection effectively enhances supplier capacity, promotes the adoption of carbon labelling, and stimulates market and supply-side demand for sustainable products and services.
Practice #7｜Green manufacturing and supply chain transformation: A practice of Farizon (Zhejiang) new energy commercial vehicles
Theme: Remanufacturing and cleaner production and carbon label
Core Content
This document focuses monetization on full supply chain carbon reduction, an integrated supply chain management system with four key components of "green supply chain, low-carbon logistics, zero-carbon manufacturing and resource recycling" built by Farizon New Energy Commercial Vehicle Group (Farizon), through measures including supply chain carbon management, low carbon logistic system, zero-carbon manufacturing, resource recycling system, and digital platform.
It is essential to be highlighted that the practice Integrated scenario-based service platform with circular ecosystem, enable carbon reduction investment cost of individual corporate, and enhances the overall sustainable competitiveness of the industrial chain through collaboration. Meanwhile, the digital platform it builds to monitor carbon emission reduction and convert emission reduction into liquid carbon assets on the basis of decarbonization, providing a replicable and measurable reference for supply chain carbon reduction.
Innovation in Supply chain Management
This practice demonstrates how can facilitate innovation from aspects of full coverage, digital & standard empowerment, ecosystem collaboration, and mechanism innovation in supply chain management:
Full coverage: full-chain carbon reduction framework was established covering the stage of "upstream, manufacturing, logistics and transportation, product operation, recycling";
Digital & standard empowerment: Integrate digitalization with standard building to ensure all emission reduction measures are traceable, assessable and replicable;
Ecosystem collaboration: Integrated scenario-based service platform with circular ecosystem, enable carbon reduction cost of the industrial chain through collaboration;
Mechanism innovation: Establish a virtuous cycle that links "qualified targets, technology commercialization, revenue reinvestment" to transforming carbon reduction from "cost centre" into "value driver".
This practice creates an integrated low-carbon system covering four key areas: green supply chains, low-carbon logistics, zero-carbon manufacturing and resource recycling. It uses a digital platform to visualize and control carbon emissions across the whole industrial chain. By upgrading production, logistics and recycling models and designing new ways to convert carbon assets, the practice sets an easy-to-follow example for commercial vehicle manufacturers to adopt green production and cut carbon across supply chains.
Learn more at the report Practices Collection: Innovative Application on Carbon Label & Carbon Reduction Integrated Supply Chain Management.
...continue to read
category : Topics
July 20, 2026
Lately, the report of Practices Collection-Innovative Application on Carbon Label and Carbon Reduction Integrated Supply Chain Management was jointly released within the collaboration between International Green Purchasing Network (IGPN) and the One Planet Network Sustainable Public Procurement (SPP) Programme, which was produced by IGPN Secretariat-China Environmental United Certification Center (CEC).
The Practices Collection brings together innovative supply chain practices from seven organizations across four countries: China, the United States, Thailand, and the Netherland. By summarizing practical experience and demonstrating phased achievements, the Practices Collection effectively enhances supplier capacity, promotes the adoption of carbon labelling, and stimulates market and supply-side demand for sustainable products and services.
Practice #6｜Integrate corporation carbon governance for sustainable development: Establishment, innovation and practice of Midea RAC carbon footprint management system
Theme: Corporate supplier management; Digitization and carbon label/carbon reduction
Core Content
This practice focuses on the carbon footprint management system establishment of‘Midea RAC’ through measures including standard development, digital platform, information disclosure, and green design. These efforts promote the design of green air-conditioning products and the application of carbon labelling, which accelerates the green and low-carbon transformation of the Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning (HVAC) industry.
It is essential to highlight that the practice drives collaborative carbon reduction along the supply chain through a carbon footprint management system. Meanwhile, the corporate carbon footprint management platform enhances international mutual recognition and provides replicable experience for carbon management in the industry.
Innovation in Supply chain Management
This practice demonstrates how can facilitate innovation from aspects of dual-wheel drive mode, end-to-end system platform, green supply chain management in supply chain management:
Dual-wheel drive mode: Systematically elevate carbon management, based on the combination of fundamental capability of standard development and digital platform with the demonstration application of information disclosure and green design;
End-to-end system platform: Build the product carbon platform into a credible platform, achieve the closed-loop management which include platform development, system construction, evaluation and recognition, calculation and application, and carbon footprint certification;
Green supply chain management: Empower and collaborate with small and medium-sized suppliers, build an industry-specific database for raw materials and components, promote green supply chain management measures, and drive carbon reduction throughout the entire value chain.
Tailored to industry features, this practice builds a standardized, digital full-chain carbon footprint management system. By leading the formulation of industry standards and self-developed carbon management platform, It solves typical flaws of conventional carbon accounting: inaccurate calculations and disconnected data. Through supply chain collaboration, green tech innovation and carbon information disclosure, forms a complete carbon management loop featured with a three-component carbon management consisting of standards, digital platforms and real-world applications, delivers coordinated carbon reduction across the whole supply chain, serving as an excellent model for home appliance and manufacturing sectors to manage carbon footprints and build green supply chains.
Learn more at the report Practices Collection: Innovative Application on Carbon Label & Carbon Reduction Integrated Supply Chain Management.
...continue to read
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