Martijn van Engelen explains

“We make it easy for companies to take circular steps”Martijn van Engelen

More and more companies find it important to show that they are doing business in a circular way. However, a lot of things need to be arranged and companies are struggling with that. Martijn van Engelen of SNEW, continues to believe in his motto ‘everything will be alright’. “We can help companies to achieve their CSR goals and ensure the creation of added value, so that this circular economy will soon be a reality.” He laughs: “It’s easier than you think and as an entrepreneur it will only benefit you more. So above all stop ‘going green’, instead you should become greener.”

Unburdening

His company, SNEW, refurbishes used IT and telecom equipment and makes it ‘as new’ again, hence the name. The company then offers the equipment at a fair price. “At SNEW, we show that ensuring circularity can also be a revenue model within IT and telephony. In doing so, we completely unburden our customers. All you have to do is give us a call and we will come and collect your old equipment. We then remove all data in a certified manner and then we look at how we can give the equipment a new life. Only when equipment cannot be refurbishes technically and cosmetically, we have it recycled.”
Van Engelen continues: “This is how we help companies to take circular steps, but we also ensure that they can continue to work with equipment for longer through preventive replacement maintenance. We have all the knowledge and parts for this in-house. From an environmental point of view, this is more responsible than opting for new, but it is also considerably more interesting financially speaking.” And according to Van Engelen, it has another advantage: “Because our refurbished products have a good price, good IT and telecom are also within reach of, for example, schools in third-world countries such as Ghana. There they want European quality for an African price. We make that possible and at the same time we contribute to solving the e-waste problem.”

Change of mindset

Looking to the future, Van Engelen expects an economic turnaround. “You will see that it will no longer be about having the latest type of smartphone, but about being able to communicate.” He hopes that the IT and telephony industry will undergo the same development as the car industry, where he comes from. “Simply because it is not appropriate these days to focus on a replacement market as a company. If we continue to do that, we will make things worse for the earth and run out of resources. With the arrival of the car scrap yards, the car industry showed that it understands this situation. Now it is the turn of the IT and telephony industry.”

Thinking in solutions

According to Van Engelen, it is important that companies start to see the value of things again. Especially in a time like this, when more people and companies are struggling financially. “Think in solutions,” he says. “Are you ready for a different telephone exchange, but you don’t have the budget for a new one? Then we provide you with one that’s a few years old and works like new. A large hardware store with branches throughout the Netherlands faced the problem that their telephone exchanges were no longer supported by the manufacturer. We made sure that their telephone exchange did not have to be replaced. In addition, our maintenance service allows us to provide remote and on-site support.” Van Engelen then provides another example: “For a Dutch airline, our technicians added a function to their telecommunications system using parts from our warehouse. Thanks to externally connected ‘busy lights’, controllers and employees can now see whether someone is on a call. With the parts that we have lying around and the knowledge we have in house, we can offer a solution for almost any problem.”

Partner in chain collaboration

With SNEW, Van Engelen hopes to become a partner in chain collaboration for more and more companies. Inventive and reliable. “We give equipment a new lifecycle and guarantee that we take back products after use. This way we remain responsible for the return flow. Every product that we accept is given a unique code here, so that we can always find its history. Our aim in the future is to make it clear to every customer how they ensure less CO2 emissions, recover raw materials and give people with a distance to the labor market an opportunity through the collaboration with SNEW. In this way we are working together towards an increasingly responsible use of telephony and IT equipment.”

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