content
Client
Expertise
Assurance and labelling
Impact
Encouraging circularity at scale by communicating the carbon credentials of refurbished devices.
CHALLENGE
How can companies gain consumer trust that refurbished electrical products are lower-carbon alternatives to buying new?
If all the electronic waste produced each year globally were loaded onto lorries, it could form a complete loop around the Earth’s equator.
To slow the stream of devices ending up in landfill, repair and refurbishment services are giving electronic products a new lease of life, offering customers more choice when purchasing electronic devices.
Consumers are drawn to refurbished devices by the cost savings, but awareness of the environmental cost of buying new is growing, too. For companies like Amazon to harness this circularity opportunity, they need to demonstrate and communicate the lower carbon benefits of choosing refurbished products.
For Amazon, circularity is a key lever towards its Net Zero by 2040 strategy. The company has been investing in extending the lifecycle of its devices and offering refurbished devices. The challenge was proving their carbon impact credibly and at scale.
This is more complex than it might appear. Devices arrive from different sources; some may be beyond repair, and no industry standard exists for measuring the carbon reductions from refurbished products. To build confidence in its methods and encourage consumers to choose pre-owned options, Amazon Devices sought an independent verification for two products within its refurbished devices portfolio. Doing so, it hoped to start strengthening the consumer case for circularity.
SOLUTION
Independently reviewing and verifying Amazon’s product carbon footprint data
Current standards don’t tell companies how to measure carbon emissions for refurbished devices. We stepped in to perform a review of the available approaches, and what is currently most widely used by the ICT sector. The Carbon Trust Requirements for Assurance for refurbished products were written to address the gap and provide a consistent method for showing the carbon reductions of a refurbished product, compared to a new product. Using these requirements, we:
Carried out a robust verification of the footprints of the refurbished versions of the popular Echo Show 5 and Fire TV Stick 4K products. This included a review of Amazon’s footprinting methodology, ensuring all emissions from the refurbishment process were accounted for, including additional transport, replacement of broken parts, energy use, and emissions from products that failed the refurbishment process.
Reviewed the footprint calculations against our Requirements for Assurance, confirming that these refurbished devices are lower in emissions compared to a new device. (Echo Show 5: reductions of up to 53%; Fire TV Stick 4K: reductions of up to 54%, depending on the country of sale)1
Licensed the Carbon Trust label for refurbished Echo Show 5s and Fire TV Sticks, demonstrating a reduced carbon footprint. This label can be communicated directly to consumers.
IMPACT
Putting circularity at the core of consumer choice
Keeping devices in use for longer and designing them to be repaired and reused are among the most powerful carbon reduction levers available to the ICT sector. By communicating the independent assurance through the Carbon Trust label, Amazon Devices can:
Prove that the refurbished Echo and Fire TV Stick devices are lower carbon than their new counterparts, making them a consumer option with solid sustainability credentials.
Highlight refurbished devices as not just cost-effective but also lower carbon. This increased visibility has the potential to increase wider demand and use consumers’ purchasing power to push for further change.
Educate internal teams that Amazon’s repair and refurbishment processes for these products are effective and lower in carbon, making the case for circularity as a viable business model. More so, it gives Amazon the confidence to seek assurance for other products within its refurbished devices portfolio.
We're not just meeting consumer demand for pre-owned electronics but also providing the transparency and data we know customers want when making purchasing decisions. Driving this transformation requires consumer trust. The Carbon Trust’s independent verification and label provide that assurance, giving consumers the confidence to choose refurbished. This helps to make circularity a scalable business reality.
1 Figures based on the Carbon Trust assessments of refurbished Echo Show 5 (Sweden) and Fire TV Stick 4K (Sweden).
