Design
Design for Disassembly
AI prioritySpecify screw-based fastening, labeled subassemblies and tool-light access so servers, GPUs and cooling modules can be separated cleanly at end of life.
- Impact
- High
- Feasibility
- Medium
- AI relevance
- High
Dashboard / Circularity strategies
Circularity strategies
Reduce e-waste across the AI hardware lifecycle
8
strategies
Design
Modular and Upgradeable Architecture
AI priorityDecouple accelerators, memory and storage from the chassis so a node can be upgraded rather than replaced when a new AI hardware generation arrives.
- Impact
- High
- Feasibility
- Medium
- AI relevance
- High
Use
Reuse and Refurbishment
AI priorityRedeploy retired training hardware into inference, staging or edge workloads, extending useful life by two to four years before recycling.
- Impact
- High
- Feasibility
- High
- AI relevance
- High
Procurement
Circular Procurement
AI priorityEmbed repairability, take-back guarantees, spare-part availability and recycled-content thresholds into every hardware tender.
- Impact
- High
- Feasibility
- High
- AI relevance
- High
End of life
Component Recovery
AI priorityHarvest DIMMs, SSDs, power supplies and interconnects from decommissioned nodes to feed spare-part pools and cut new procurement.
- Impact
- Medium
- Feasibility
- High
- AI relevance
- High
Operations
Cooling Retrofit over Replacement
AI priorityConvert air-cooled halls to liquid cooling with retrofit kits so rising AI rack density does not force premature demolition of infrastructure.
- Impact
- Medium
- Feasibility
- Medium
- AI relevance
- High
End of life
Material Recycling
Route non-reusable hardware to certified recyclers capable of recovering copper, gold, palladium and rare-earth elements at high yield.
- Impact
- Medium
- Feasibility
- High
- AI relevance
- Medium
Operations
Asset Traceability and Data Passports
Track every asset from install to disposition with a digital passport recording composition, repairs and final treatment route.
- Impact
- Medium
- Feasibility
- Medium
- AI relevance
- Medium