When we talk about the cost of workplace technology, the conversation often starts with purchase price. But for facilities and workplace teams creating environments that need to perform for years, that only tells part of the story.
A monitor might seem like a relatively small part of the workplace. Multiply that decision across hundreds or thousands of desks, though, and it starts to matter. How long will those monitors last? How much energy will they use? How often will they need replacing? And what about the people who may spend thousands of hours every year looking at them?
For us, these questions bring together three things that shouldn’t really be considered in isolation: Wellbeing, Productivity and Sustainability.
Start with people
Digital eye strain is a real consideration in today’s screen-based workplace. Research from the Optometry and Vision Science Research Group at Aston University, including work led by Professor James Wolffsohn and Dr Amy Sheppard, has explored both the prevalence of digital eye strain and its potential impact on people using digital devices for prolonged periods.
Importantly, this isn’t simply about comfort. Aston’s research has also explored the relationship between digital eye strain and productivity. When screens are such a fundamental part of the working day, we think the experience of using them deserves more attention.
At EIZO, this research helps inform our thinking. We have spent years developing technologies intended to make prolonged screen use more comfortable, including automatic brightness adjustment, flicker-free viewing, low blue light modes and highly adjustable stands.
Our experience also goes well beyond the office. EIZO displays are used in security and surveillance, healthcare, air traffic control and creative production – environments where reliability and performance really matter. We bring that experience to the monitors we design for the workplace.
The value of keeping technology for longer
Sustainability is often discussed in terms of energy efficiency, recycled materials and reducing packaging. These are all important, and areas where we continue to make progress. But there is another, very straightforward way of reducing impact: make products that last.
EIZO has offered a five-year warranty on its monitors for more than 20 years. We have now gone further, introducing a seven-year warranty on selected FlexScan monitors.
Think about what replacing a large monitor estate actually involves. Hundreds or thousands of monitors may arrive within a relatively short period. They have to be received, stored and distributed. Old monitors need removing and new ones installing. There is packaging to handle and recycle, and the previous equipment then needs to be redeployed, stored, recycled or responsibly disposed of.
All of this takes time, costs money, uses resources and can disrupt both the workplace and the people in it.
If monitors remain in productive use for longer, organisations simply don’t need to go through that process as often. That can mean lower installation and removal costs, less packaging, fewer storage requirements and less electronic waste.
Suddenly, sustainability and total cost of ownership are part of the same conversation.
Looking beyond the price tag
This is why we think purchase price alone is a poor measure of value. A cheaper monitor that needs replacing sooner may not prove to be the lower-cost choice when energy, reliability, employee experience, deployment and replacement are considered over its lifetime.
And organisations shouldn’t simply have to take our word for our sustainability commitments. EIZO’s approach has received independent recognition through EcoVadis Platinum and CDP Climate Change A, while our Japanese manufacturing facilities have achieved RBA Platinum.
Our view is ultimately quite simple. Good workplace technology should support people, help them work effectively and make responsible use of resources.
Perhaps the question, then, isn’t simply “What does this monitor cost today?”
It’s “What value will it deliver over its lifetime?”
