Greater Sustainability Through Major Product Innovations by Seagate

With a deep commitment to conservation and sustainability, Seagate is leading the industry in the development and implementation of the most responsible operations yet known in the computer technology industry. By emphasizing green storage products and materials, health and safety, community involvement, and self-governance, we are proud to support environmental sustainability and are a signatory to the Responsible Business Alliance Code of Conduct.

Read on to learn how we’ve leveraged our position as a provider of technical hardware, software, and services to lead by example and innovate more than just revolutionary technologies; we’re creating better, smarter, and safer technology for people and our planet.

A Sustainable Datasphere

By placing a prime emphasis on circularity in our hard drive designs, we are extending the life cycle of our products through greater efficiency and a huge reduction in the impact we have on the ecosystem. Through partnerships with the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), we’ve spearheaded the largest-scale application of unified security and technical standards for data sanitization to render post-use data recovery infeasible. This allows us to safely manage the recovery of old products from our customers for reuse in future product lines, reducing large amounts of electronic waste and emissions of industrial pollutants.

A Circular Economy

Creating the most robust circular economy possible is directly at the core of Seagate’s mission. In alignment with our core values, we seek nothing less than the most efficient application of design innovations to reduce scrap materials and safely improve reusability rates. We’ve improved upon our designs and packaging solutions to bring circularity to the forefront of our manufacturing practices, with the following innovations:

• Reprioritization of recyclability in our product materials
• Densification of materials for greater long-term reusability in future fabrication processes
• Reduction in packaging waste using packing materials that create more protection from less material

We believe that the goal of all companies – especially those with global reach – should be to reduce material waste and cut energy expenditure during fabrication and product recovery processes. According to McKinsey, 92 percent of new-business executives believe that sustainability is a key issue they need to address. We believe that established companies have a real opportunity to lead the charge. Now more than ever, Seagate is showing the way.

More Sustainable Products & Relationships

At the crest of our innovative wave is our revolutionary new self-healing block storage technology. Seagate’s Exos CORVAULT system uses Autonomous Drive Regeneration (ADR), a new technology that can actually renew errant drives on the spot. By reconfiguring drives on the fly, ADR renews failed drive sectors or platters, resulting in a better product experience for the customer while drastically reducing e-waste. Each drive is also built into an extremely robust anti-vibrational chassis with superior heat-venting capacities – meaning uninterrupted performance and vastly reduced failure rates.

Further, after initial pilot studies in tandem with one of our closest industry partners, we are capitalizing on our renewed ability to recover and repurpose an incredible volume of material that otherwise would become scrap.

The result is the widescale rollout of our Product Takeback Program, which guarantees hassle-free and efficient returns for even out-of-warranty and damaged drives in exchange for generous credits that enable our previous customers to obtain new Seagate products of ever-greater build and design. Over time, this continual improvement of design processes and material repurposing will create immense efficiency yet unheard of in the computer hardware industry – and customers will enjoy continually improved product quality and reliability.

More Solutions Than Problems

Because electronic waste currently contributes the #1 highest amount of domestic waste on Earth, we’ve set our sights on the solutions capable of tackling this global problem. The “take, make, dispose” model of the previous century is gone – and in its place are incredibly farsighted innovations and business models aimed sharply at a brighter future for all. Additionally, we’ve solved the data-security issues that also have traditionally stood in the way of more sustainable hard drive disposal practices. Seagate customers can purchase environmentally-forward hard drive solutions while still relying on the industry-leading data security practices Seagate is known for across the globe. We’re not shedding our DNA; we’re evolving.

Blurring the Line Between Taking & Giving

So that we can give something back, we’re reducing electronic waste by taking some of it back. Though people have gotten used to companies taking what’s profitable and leaving waste in their wake, we are confident that through widescale efforts like the Seagate Product Takeback Program, that tide is shifting.

By favoring the longest-term vision of the total product life cycle, from inception to application and then re-application of our product lines, we’re already seeing a change in the way businesses and customers are working together for a common goal. At Seagate, we believe that long-term business sustainability is directly tied to environmental sustainability. Let’s create a brighter world — together.

If you’d like to get involved or learn more about our Product Takeback Program, please call us at 800-321-1466 – and help us make a difference together.