1. The Price of Doing Nothing: Laptop Inflation Is Crushing IT Budgets
Hardware prices have climbed sharply. A laptop that once cost $1,300 now runs closer to $1,900—an added $600 per device.
Across a 5,000-unit fleet, that's not a rounding error. It's a budget crisis—adding $3,000,000 in acquisition costs alone.
The Numbers
| Metric | Value |
| Total fleet cost at new price | $9,500,000 |
| Total cost with CHG (3-year lifecycle) | $7,930,000 |
| Total savings with CHG | $1,570,000 |
| Savings per laptop | $313 |
2. Your Laptops Have a Carbon Problem
The Numbers
- 287 kg CO₂e — Full 5-year lifecycle emissions per laptop*
- ~80% — Share of those emissions locked in during manufacturing*
- 1,435 metric tonnes — Total 5-year carbon footprint of your 5,000-unit fleet
Why It Matters
Your ESG targets don't live in a slide deck—they live in your purchasing decisions. Every new laptop carries a heavy, hidden carbon debt. Choosing refurbished and leased fleets breaks that cycle without slowing your operations.
Carbon figures are based on industry benchmarks.
3. You're Sitting on Recoverable Capital
When laptops reach end-of-life, most organizations let them pile up in storage closets. Those devices aren't neutral—they're a depreciating liability.
Why It Matters
Left alone, retired laptops depreciate to $0 and then cost you money to dispose of. A structured refurbish-and-resell program turns those dead assets into $1,000,000 of recovered capital—while eliminating e-waste disposal fees.
The Numbers
| Metric | Value |
| Trade-in value (3-year-old business laptop) | $200 per device |
| Recoverable fleet value | $1,000,000 |
| E-waste disposal costs avoided ($15/device) | $75,000 |
| Total value unlocked per device | ~$215 |
The Bottom Line
Three problems. One root cause: treating laptops as things you buy and forget, rather than assets you manage.
- Cost: Stop absorbing price inflation. Save $1,650,000 over a 3-year lifecycle.
- Carbon: Address a 1,435-tonne fleet footprint and support your ESG goals.
- Capital: Recover $1,000,000 locked in retired devices.
Technology lifecycle management addresses all three at once.
Ready to see your numbers?
Book a free fleet assessment with CHG-MERIDIAN Canada today and discover exactly what your laptop fleet could be saving, reducing, and recovering.
Frequently asked questions
Older devices can seem cost-free, but they still cost money to support, repair and secure, and they lose resale value every year. Meanwhile, replacement prices keep rising, so the longer you wait, the more your next refresh is likely to cost.
Leasing spreads costs over predictable payments and builds in a regular refresh cycle. Because CHG-MERIDIAN invests in the residual value of your devices, you pay for the time you use them rather than their full purchase price. In our example of a 5,000-laptop fleet, that adds up to savings of 1.57 million dollars over three years.
Most of a laptop’s carbon emissions, around 80 percent, come from manufacturing, not day-to-day use. Extending each device’s life through refurbishment and a second use cycle reduces the need to manufacture new devices. Our re.cover program can also help you take responsibility for the remaining CO₂ emissions of your devices.
CHG-MERIDIAN collects your devices, securely erases all data with our certified eraSURE® process, and refurbishes and remarkets them for a second life. You avoid disposal costs and keep devices out of landfill.
Book a free fleet assessment with CHG-MERIDIAN Canada. We’ll look at the size, age and value of your current fleet, and show you what you could save, reduce and recover.