Panasonic enhances sustainability with Circular Computing

Panasonic TOUGHBOOK and Circular Computing have announced a partnership that they say will transform the sustainability of rugged computing. The leading European rugged mobile computing provider has teamed with the creators of the world’s first remanufactured laptops to create a more ethical, sustainable and socially responsible way to prolong the use of its rugged technology.

Circular Computing will remanufacture TOUGHBOOK devices – starting with the TOUGHBOOK G1 tablet with expected availability in mid-2022. The organisation will take legacy TOUGHBOOK devices and remanufacture them for a useful second life – massively increasing sustainability and reducing carbon emissions. The first remanufactured G1 device is expected to deliver 316kg in carbon emissions savings per device as it’s given a second useful life.

Circular Computing will take each device and put it through an extensive 5+ hour remanufacturing process and 360-point quality check to deliver unrivalled quality and consistency. Devices will be remanufactured to BS8887 standards by fully qualified technicians within Circular Computing’s purpose-built state-of-the-art production facility.

Circular Computing, with the world’s first BSI KITEMARK certified remanufacturing process for laptops, will guarantee consistent quality of the same model in large volumes and, with comprehensive cosmetic detailing, every TOUGHBOOK will be refinished to exacting quality standards. Circular Computing’s remanufactured consumer laptops are already popular with environmentally aware organisations, the education sector, and small, medium organisations with budget constraints.

Kevin Jones, Director of Operations at Panasonic Mobile Business Solutions Europe, said: “We are very proud to be the first rugged computing provider to embrace this environmentally sustainable opportunity with Circular Computing. Our aim is that in the future our customers and our channel providers need never throw another TOUGHBOOK device away.”

Rod Neale, founder of Circular Computing, added: “For years the IT channel has tried to legitimately provide product that has been used, by calling it refurbished or grade ‘A’ but the consumer needs assurances and consistency which you just don’t get from a refurbished product. Circular Computing was set up to bring the same level of consistency in supply scale and condition as the brand-new channel.

“In this way we can supply the customer with the most sustainable laptop on the planet and deliver all their technology needs, all whilst not asking them to take any risk on the products cosmetic, technical or warranty performance. This agreement with Panasonic is great news for the industry, the consumer and for us as a company.

“It is a much more complex operation to remanufacture a rugged device over a regular laptop but both organisations were committed to solving the issues and contributing to a better world through the sustainable use of technology.”

Once the first remanufactured TOUGHBOOK model is available, work on other popular models in the range will follow.