(re) blog: dialogue with Redemtech

A Low Bar Is Worse than No Bar

Earlier this year, I found myself in a hotel bar debating the EPA's prospective certification for electronics recyclers with a respected colleague. He has been personally involved with development of the "Responsible Recycling, or "R2" standard, and was proud of his participation in the grand coalition of manufacturers, industry interest groups, and non-profits. There were many times, he said, when it appeared that diverging stakeholder interests would derail the whole idea of a national standard for e-waste recycling. "In the end, we compromised our principles, but after all," he rationalized, "Minimal standards are better than no standards at all." In the best tradition of large bureacracies, the EPA now appears ready to create a certification which will simultaneously fail in its worthy environmental and social objectives, while delighting those industry interests devoted to keeping e-waste recycling as profitable as possible.

Caring Means Governance

Hypothetically, let's say a financial services company suspects it has lost a couple of unencrypted computers, or more specifically, its auditors think they have. Under the law, they have an obligation to report such a loss.  When they check with their IT asset disposition vendor, none are missing, but two serial numbers don't match. Is it a privacy breach or just bad accounting?

Why Improving IT Asset Management Requires Dealing With Grief Process

According to an old joke, change is hard only when it encounters human nature, which tends to resist most changes. In other words, change of any sort is hard.

Why Everyone Needs to Walk the Talk

When it comes to e-waste, I frequently run into ironic situations. I had another one of those moments recently, as Redemtech played host to local material waste regulators.

Measure Twice, Cut Once

Perhaps you’re familiar with the old saying “measure twice and cut once.” It’s a bit of wisdom about the importance of planning, and how proper planning leads to fewer mistakes. Every good seamstress or carpenter understands this immediately. And while it might be less obvious in the IT asset management industry, it’s no less true.