22 June 2020
By Mary Bermingham
mary@TheCork.ie
To mark World Rainforest Day 2020 on the 22nd of June, Wisetek (the Cork-based IT asset disposal, data destruction, technology reuse company) is calling on Irish companies to ethically manage their e-waste collection and destruction, as a part of their overall sustainability efforts.
World Rainforest Day was launched in 2017 by the charity Rainforest Partnership to inspire individuals and societies across the globe to take part in sustainable changes.
Wisetek applies sustainable practices both through its internal company policies and the work it carries out on behalf of clients to ethically dispose of their IT assets. The company has a dedicated environmental committee in place, with the objective of continually improving the internal environmental policies and processes at its facilities across Ireland, the UK, the USA, the Middle East and Thailand.
Wisetek has recycled 274 tonnes of cardboard, plastic, foam, wood, paper and other canteen waste generated at its headquarters in Cork last year, saving the equivalent of over 114 tonnes of CO2 and 2,000 trees. This many trees still standing absorbed over 43 tonnes of CO2. Wisetek aims to reduce its carbon footprint by a further 50% by the end of 2020.
The company estimates the total amount of CO2 saved last year as a result of recycling at its Cork headquarters was over 158 tonnes, the equivalent of removing 32 average-sized family cars from Irish roads for the year.
Sean Sheehan, CEO of Wisetek, said
“Sustainability is at the heart of Wisetek’s ethos as an organisation and World Rainforest Day is a global opportunity to celebrate and promote sustainability. Moving forward, I believe that the principles of the circular economy, which Wisetek has always championed, will become more important to companies than ever before. From our knowledge and observation of the sector, we predict that organisations will endeavour to reuse their old IT assets, as a direct result of the economic impact of the Covid-19 pandemic. This will be done to keep costs down and to limit damage from potential future disruptions to supply chains.”
Sean Sheehan, CEO of Wisetek
Wisetek also applies sustainable practices in the work it carries out on behalf of its clients. As an expert in the area of e-waste, Wisetek has the skills and expertise to offer value recovery, secure data destruction and responsible recycling services of retired IT equipment.
Wisetek operates a Zero Landfill Policy and has processed over 125,000 metric tonnes of electronic equipment and over 17 million parts to date on behalf of its clients. The company has erased and destroyed over 11 million disk drives and over 11,000 enterprise rack systems have been refurbished or newly manufactured. This amounts to approximately €1.45 billion in components recovered for its clients’ internal use.