Resource Use and Circular Economy

With respect to resource use and the circular economy, United   Internet focuses on how IT hardware used within the Company itself and customer devices such as smartphones, tablets, and routers are handled. The main focus in on the refurbishment and recovery of the hardware involved.

Material Impacts, Risks, and Opportunities in the Area of Resource Use and Circular Economy

United   Internet can make a material contribution to the use of recyclable and secondary materials with respect to IT hardware. It does this on the one hand by consciously purchasing sustainable materials and on the other by raising awareness among its business partners. In this way, the Company is promoting enhanced resource efficiency and supporting the transition to a circular economy. In addition, environmentally friendly transportation packaging reduces the need for primary raw materials.

Sustainable purchasing is not the only way to promote the circular economy; this can also be encouraged by prolonging the lifetime of the products that are purchased or sold. This is why United   Internet analyzes, refurbishes, and resells the hardware that is returned by customers so as to extend the products’ life cycles. United   Internet’s growing portfolio of refurbished IT hardware (e.g., smartphones, notebooks, and servers) helps reduce the need for new resources and to strengthen the circular economy. Devices that cannot be reused are recycled. The same process also applies to internally used hardware (including smartphones, notebooks, servers, screens, and printers), most of which is donated and, if possible, refurbished.

United   Internet could be exposed to financial risk in relation to the availability of resources or as a result of delays to deliveries: Geopolitical conflicts, natural disasters, and increasingly scarce resources could lead to delays or outages in supply chains and hence to higher costs. This is also due to increasing competition for raw materials and important metals – e.g., for the materials-intensive expansion of the fiber-optic network. Time lags could lead to a delay in new customer growth and to financing risks. The failure to replace data center hardware as a result of supply chain disruptions could lead to revenue being lost from business interruptions.