If an employee leaves or a device malfunctions, a company might simply order a replacement and leave the old unit sitting idle in storage. This linear approach drains procurement budgets and ignores the remaining value of functional hardware. To recover this utility, operations directors should map the physical flow of specific assets and implement a targeted circular pilot.
The cost of linear asset management
In our current economy, organizations take materials, make products, and eventually throw them away as waste. This linear approach is deeply embedded in corporate procurement and IT asset management processes, creating significant financial liabilities. Consider an illustrative scenario of a mid-sized company managing a fleet of 500 corporate laptops and 500 external monitors. Over a typical year, a portion of these devices will suffer minor damage, such as a degraded battery, while others are returned during employee offboarding.
In a standard linear system, damaged units are stockpiled for eventual disposal, and returned functional units often sit in departmental drawers as unrecorded spares. Meanwhile, the procurement department continues to purchase new devices to meet demand for new hires. This cycle of continuous purchasing and premature disposal is the hallmark of a take-make-waste system.
The circular economy tackles these challenges by decoupling economic activity from the consumption of finite resources. To stop waste from being produced, operations teams must shift their focus from managing disposal to extending the active service life of the equipment they already own. This requires a fundamental shift in how the organization views its hardware: not as disposable consumables, but as long-term investments requiring active lifecycle management.
Sources: [1]
Mapping the physical flow of equipment
The first step in changing this dynamic is mapping the physical lifecycle of the equipment. An asset map traces the journey of a device from the moment it is purchased to its final disposition. This is an operational audit of physical movements, decision points, and handovers across departments. The goal is to identify intervention points where the organization can adapt internal processes to keep materials in circulation.
In our illustrative fleet, the map begins with procurement. Operations must document who decides the specifications and whether devices are chosen for durability. The next phase is active use. When a device malfunctions, the map must capture who makes the decision to repair or replace it. If the failure mechanism is a rigid IT policy that prioritizes rapid replacement over diagnosis, the organization risks discarding repairable assets. The map must document exactly what happens when a device is handed back to IT. Is there a standardized diagnostic checklist? Is there a secure storage area for units awaiting repair?
Crucially, the map must reveal the leakage points where value is lost. A common leakage point occurs during employee transitions. If human resources does not immediately notify IT of a departure, the hardware remains assigned to a dormant account. When a new hire arrives, a new device is ordered because the existing asset is not visible in the available inventory pool. By mapping these disconnects, operations directors can see exactly where a circular intervention is required.
Sources: [3]
Distinguishing prevention, reuse, and recycling
Once the asset map reveals where equipment is leaking out of active use, the operations director must decide how to intervene. The circular economy is based on principles driven by design, specifically eliminating waste and circulating products and materials at their highest value. However, not all circular interventions offer the same operational or financial return. It is critical to distinguish between prevention, reuse, and recycling before designing a pilot program.
Prevention focuses on eliminating waste before it occurs. In IT operations, this means extending the life of a device through proactive maintenance, such as replacing a degraded laptop battery rather than discarding the entire unit. Reuse involves taking a functional product and redeploying it to a new user, thereby circulating the product at its highest value without requiring further manufacturing.
Recycling, while often mistaken for the primary goal of sustainability programs, is actually the last resort. It involves breaking down the product to recover raw materials, a process that destroys the embedded value and labor of the original manufacturing process. When designing a pilot program, operations teams must weigh the implementation effort against the value retained. A successful strategy prioritizes interventions that keep the device intact and functional for as long as possible.
| Strategy | Operational Action | Value Retained | Implementation Effort |
|---|---|---|---|
| Prevention | Upgrading RAM and replacing batteries | High (avoids new device purchase) | Medium (requires technical repair skills) |
| Internal Reuse | Redeploying idle monitors to new hires | High (avoids new device purchase) | Low (requires tracking and storage process) |
| Recycling | Sending broken units to an e-waste vendor | Low (recovers raw materials only) | Low (requires standard vendor contract) |
Sources: [1]
Selecting and measuring the initial pilot
With the trade-offs understood, the next action is selecting a specific, manageable pilot. Attempting to overhaul the entire IT procurement strategy at once introduces unnecessary operational risk. Instead, operations directors should choose a single asset class and a specific intervention point identified on the asset map. For an initial pilot, targeting the internal reuse of external monitors is often the most effective choice.
Unlike laptops, monitors do not store sensitive corporate data, eliminating the need for complex data-wiping protocols before redeployment. Furthermore, to determine if their failure rate is low, operations can test a sample of units returned during employee offboarding to see how many remain fully functional. To launch the pilot, the operations team must define the baseline: how many monitors were purchased over the last six months, and how many were redeployed? Measuring and reporting on progress is a key driver in the transition, providing an economic rationale for circular business models.
The pilot requires clear acceptance criteria. For example, a monitor is deemed ready for redeployment if the screen is unblemished, all ports function, and the power cable is present. The IT department must establish a dedicated staging area for these verified units. Most importantly, the procurement team must agree to a new rule: no new monitor purchases can be approved without first checking if a suitable asset is available in the redeployment staging area within the required timeframe.
Sources: [4]
Automating the redeployment workflow
A policy shift alone is insufficient without a reliable mechanism to enforce it. When procurement managers lack real-time data on the availability and condition of redeployable assets, functional equipment risks sitting idle. Without this information, they often default to ordering new equipment to avoid delaying onboarding. Managing this workflow requires a digital registry integrated with the company's operational processes.
To support this circular workflow, organizations can propose configuring low-code platforms for automating processes, forms, and registries, such as Scriptum. When HR initiates an employee offboarding process, the configured system can automatically generate a task for the IT department to retrieve and inspect the assigned monitor. Once the IT technician completes the diagnostic checklist, they update the asset's status in the Scriptum registry to indicate it is available for redeployment.
When a manager subsequently requests equipment for a new hire, the automated form queries the registry first. If a suitable monitor is available, the system routes the request to the IT staging area rather than the procurement department. This creates a verifiable record of the handover and proves that the internal reuse process is functioning. By digitizing the asset flow, the operations director ensures that the circular pilot is a measurable process that directly reduces unnecessary procurement costs.
Sources: [2]
Action checklist
- Select one specific asset class (e.g., standard 24-inch monitors) for the initial circular pilot.
- Map the current physical steps from employee offboarding to device storage and eventual disposal.
- Define strict acceptance criteria for a device to be considered ready for internal redeployment.
- Establish a baseline metric of new purchases versus internal redeployments over the last six months.
- Configure a digital registry to track the real-time availability and condition of the pilot assets.
Questions and answers
Does a circular asset map replace our existing IT inventory system?
No. The asset map is an analytical exercise to identify process gaps, such as why functional laptops sit in storage. It informs how you configure your IT inventory system to trigger redeployment workflows rather than just recording location.
Why shouldn't we start our circular pilot with an e-waste recycling program?
Recycling destroys the functional value of the manufactured product and only recovers raw materials. A circular economy prioritizes circulating products at their highest value, meaning internal reuse or repair yields significantly higher cost savings than recycling.
How do we prove the financial success of a redeployment pilot?
Track the avoided procurement costs. If the pilot successfully redeploys 50 monitors that meet operational standards, multiply that by the unit cost of a new monitor to demonstrate the direct cash flow impact.
Sources
- The Circular Economy | Definition & Model Explained | Ellen MacArthur Foundation
- Alliance Technology Stack — UnityBase & products | Intecracy Group
- Circular economy procurement: a framework for businesses | Ellen MacArthur Foundation
- Measurement and reporting for the circular economy | Ellen MacArthur Foundation