The digital workplace is evolving fast. IT teams are constantly looking to improve efficiency, stay within budget and align with broader business goals. Companies want reliable, secure tools that support their teams and fit within existing workflows, while at the same time, there’s a growing appetite to align IT to societal needs.
This is why circular IT is becoming increasingly important. It offers practical ways to get more value from the devices employees already use, while helping teams manage their digital environments effectively.
Ray Knight, Sustainability Programme Manager at Atos, recently shared his perspective on workplace-focused circular IT, offering a strong starting point for understanding where digital workplaces are heading—and how to get more from the tech you already have.
Earlier, Ray joined circularity expert Hugo Warner and Closing the Loop CEO Joost de Kluijver for a webinar exploring the role of circular IT in building better digital workplaces.
In this blog, we bring together highlights from both the webinar and Ray’s article to help you discover how making your workplace IT more circular can become a driver for employee engagement or a positive branding opportunity. You’ll gain:
- A practical understanding of circularity in the workspace
- Strategies to embed circularity into device procurement and IT operations
- Insight into how responsible IT use can increase workplace productivity
The Value of Circular IT
Device refresh cycles are due for a rethink
Procurement is at the heart of digital workplace performance, and it’s where responsible IT can have the biggest value. Many organisations still operate on fixed refresh cycles for laptops and phones. However, these schedules are often outdated, driven by leasing terms or legacy policies, and can often result in stress for procurement teams and unnecessary spending.
As Ray notes, many companies are already rethinking refresh cycles—looking to extend device life where possible and align refresh timing with real business needs.
Longer lifetimes = better performance
The logic is simple: replacing devices too early is expensive. Extending the life of existing hardware helps reduce cost, eases procurement demand, and improves ROI. But, to shift from fixed to performance-based refreshes, companies need tools to assess device health.
Solutions already exist to support this shift, such as software that monitors device condition and signals when it’s time for replacement, and across the industry, the move towards longer lifetimes is growing. Organisations are improving their digital workplace not by buying more, but by managing smarter.
Circular IT strengthens long-term digital workplace resilience
Ray also highlights the link between digital workplaces and supply chain complexity. New devices depend on rare materials that can be hard to source. Extending device lifetimes, or responsibly retiring old tech, helps reduce supply risks and keep future operations stable. In short, circular IT helps make digital workplaces more resilient.
How to think about your circular IT strategy
Circular solutions are often thought of as something separate from regular business activities and goals. This leads to circular IT being worked into how companies use devices, instead of being an inherent and complementary part of the overall strategy. Knight underscores the fact that sustainability and business should be inseparable.
In this clip, Ray explains that when both are considered together in workplace solutions, business outcomes improve—and responsible IT use becomes easier to integrate because it aligns naturally with business objectives.
The Industry Shift: From Siloed Projects to Integrated Solutions
More teams join the conversation
In the webinar, Hugo Warner explains that circularity is no longer the sole responsibility of sustainability teams. Procurement, IT, operations, finance—even marketing—are getting involved. Why? Because done right, circularity supports commercial goals and delivers value on multiple fronts.
Learning how to create value from digital workplace solutions on multiple levels requires involvement from multiple stakeholders. Internal Communications, for example, can use circular IT for employee engagement, while procurement and operations can align on device refresh cycles to ensure maximum efficiency. Collaboration is key to getting the most value.
Long-term strategy leads the way
Focusing your efforts on searching for single, large sustainability projects is less effective than implementing a long-term strategy. Solutions that plug directly into your digital workplace systems are continuously adding value by complementing each other and your existing workflows.
These include lifecycle management, repair programs, procurement bundles, device choice schemes, and refurbishment pathways. The aim is to add value without forcing your organisation to change its working processes.
Where One for One fits within digital workplace solutions
Turnkey circularity for your workplace
Today’s digital workplace includes device repair, extended warranties, lifecycle optimisation, and more. One for One complements this ecosystem. It’s a turnkey service that adds measurable circularity—without requiring workflow changes.
One for One works like this: when organisations buy new devices, Closing the Loop matches those devices with the collection of an equivalent number of scrap devices—removing from the market the same number that is added. That waste is collected in emerging markets and sent into safe, reliable recycling processes. This supports the digital workplace by:
- Complementing the rest of your circular portfolio.
- Embedding additional waste reduction directly into procurement.
- Creating stories that digital workplace teams understand and can use immediately.
A natural fit for modern IT portfolios
One for One is a logical addition to existing digital workplace services. It fits seamlessly into:
- Device procurement bundles
- Lifecycle and device management offers
- Employee device choice programs
- Repair and reuse pathways
- Trade-in or refresh services
There’s no need to redesign your offer. One for One simply increases the value of what you already do. It’s workplace circularity that is easy to explain, easy to implement, and exciting for employees.
The power of using employee devices to showcase your circularity ambitions
As said before, employee phones and laptops are often the most tangible connection between an organisation and its people. They’re a natural platform to express values, show responsibility, and engage employees. In the clip below, Closing the Loop CEO Joost de Kluijver shares why this approach works in practice.
Conclusions:
Bringing together insights from the webinar and Ray Knight’s article, three key ideas stand out:
- Circular IT is becoming strategic for the digital workplace, especially for procurement and long-term planning.
- Practical tools win, especially those that plug into existing systems without heavy changes. Visible short-term results stemming from these are an added bonus
- Simplicity is key in thinking about and implementing circular IT solutions.
Circular IT within the digital workplace will only continue to grow in importance. Companies do not need to redesign everything at once. They can take simple steps that create business value today and prepare their teams for the future. One for One is one of many tools that support this approach.
If you want to explore how these ideas can fit your own digital workplace strategy, you can watch the full webinar or speak with our team.
