Zen

🇬🇧 A FRITZ! Sustainability Report by Zen

Zen has worked with FRITZ! as a CPE partner for over a decade. In that time, the thing that has stood out most isn't the feature set or the performance, it's the fact that the hardware just keeps going.

We still have FRITZ!Box units in active service that were deployed years ago. In an industry where CPE is typically replaced every three to five years, that longevity has a direct and measurable impact on our environmental footprint. Fewer manufacturing runs, fewer shipments, fewer units going to landfill.

A major reason that longevity is possible is FRITZ!’s approach to software support. FRITZ!OS updates continue for years after a device launches, keeping older hardware secure, patched, and compatible with current network standards. This isn't a nice-to-have, it's what makes our entire refurbishment and reuse programme viable. There's no point refurbishing a router if you can't guarantee it will remain secure and fully functional once it's redeployed. Continuous software support is the difference between a refurbished unit being a credible, safe product and one that's a security liability. It's the foundation that the whole circular model depends on.

That durability and continued software support directly enables our circular economy commitments as a certified B Corporation. Almost all returned FRITZ!Box units are successfully refurbished, either restored as complete devices or harvested for parts to extend the life of other units. That refurbishment rate is only possible because the hardware is built to survive multiple service cycles and continues to receive the software updates needed to keep it in the field. We've even introduced chemical-free buffing of FRITZ!Box shells to restore them to as-new condition, something that simply wouldn't work with lower-quality hardware.

This matters to Zen beyond the immediate environmental benefit. Our path to Net Zero, aligned to the Science Based Targets initiative, covers not just our own direct emissions but our entire supply chain, including the manufacture and transport of the routers we deploy to customers. Every FRITZ!Box unit that stays in service rather than being replaced is one fewer device manufactured, packaged, and shipped, directly reducing the Scope 3 emissions we're committed to cutting. We've set a target to halve our greenhouse gas emissions by 2028, and working with suppliers who build hardware that lasts — and keep it updated so it can stay in service — is one of the most practical ways we can make progress against that target.

FRITZ!’s decision to manufacture in Europe rather than the Far East reinforces this further, reducing the transport emissions embedded in every unit before it even reaches us. 
We're proud to support this entry. FRITZ! is exactly the kind of supply chain partner that makes credible progress on Net Zero possible.

Andrew Sayle - Connectivity Portfolio Manager Zen - andrew.sayle@zeninternet.co.uk