About Agilico
Agilico is a workplace technology business with over 450 staff in the UK. They supply agile print, agile docs and agile tech to over 11,000 customers.
The challenge
Agilico sought to integrate sustainability into their business model to align with the growing emphasis on environmental responsibility. The company recognised the increasing importance of sustainability for both ethical and business reasons, aiming to future-proof their operations and enhance their market positioning.
Agilico’s primary objectives were threefold:
- Reduce their environmental impact
- Improve operational efficiencies
- Position themselves as leaders in sustainable workplace technology, enhancing their brand reputation and meeting the evolving demands of their clients
To achieve this, they wanted to show measurable reductions in waste and energy consumption and foster a culture of sustainability within the organisation.
What we did
Agilico chose to collaborate with Circularity First due to our expertise in sustainable IT solutions and strategic advisory capabilities. Keen to make sustainability a strategic focus and not a tactic, Agilico and Circularity First worked closely to develop and implement a comprehensive sustainability strategy.
The partnership kicked off with a Sustainability Strategy Workshop with senior stakeholders from across the business. This provided a detailed assessment of Agilico’s current practices, identifying areas for improvement and deploying innovative solutions to enhance sustainability. From this, Circularity First could provide both guidance and practical support, ensuring that sustainability initiatives were seamlessly integrated into Agilico’s operations. Throughout the 18 month engagement, Circularity First provided ongoing tracking and reporting to ensure continuous improvement and transparency.
As well as senior level engagement, Circularity First played a leading role in delivering programmes aimed at educating Agilico’s workforce in sustainability efforts. At the annual sales conference, Ignite, Circularity First helped to shift the sales focus towards remanufactured IT, demonstrating to the sales function the opportunity available to them in reselling it, as well as the sustainability impact. This helped to foster a company-wide commitment to environmental responsibility.
The results
The partnership between Agilico and Circularity First yielded significant positive outcomes from commercial, people and environmental perspectives.
Commercial impacts
The engagement helped Agilico to realise the opportunities that sustainability could have on their margins by diversifying their go-to markets and generating efficiencies. The strategic adoption of remanufactured equipment into their portfolio allowed them to introduce a more price-competitive product with a strong margin to a specific customer set.
The planet
Almost 40% of the devices that are sold now come from remanufacturing. Aside from leading to a reduction in e-waste, it also removes the carbon and mineral consumption associated with new products. Outside of remanufacturing, wider environmental benefits were realised by aligning with the UN’s SDGs. This included removing the supply of bottled water from office premises and introducing biodegradable packaging at no extra cost. Where possible, they also moved into more energy efficient premises and 80% of the company fleet is now electric.
Employee engagement
Engaging employees in sustainability efforts has improved workplace morale and fostered a sense of shared purpose. Now, staff are coming up with their own contributions.
What I love is how the engineers are coming forward with ideas, such as what we do with devices that we can’t remanufacture because they are end-of-life. They are actively looking for solutions that mean things don’t just go in the bin.
Looking towards the future, there are a number of initiatives that Agilico are looking to take forward, such as establishing SBTi targets. Agilico’s CEO believes that there is a real opportunity to further grow the business through sustainability as well.
Project highlights
Taking the customer on the remanufacturing journey. Agilico invited customers into their remanufacturing workshops so they could see the process and try to identify which was a new product and which was remanufactured, often mislabelling the latter as new.
