(re) blog: dialogue with Redemtech

Direct from the executive suite, perspectives on Technology Change Management and all things impacting global business and the evolving IT Asset Management industry.

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Refurbished Computer Initiative: Training Teens Who Train Elders

One of Redemtech’s many initiatives is a strategic relationship with TechSoup Global, a California-based nonprofit organization whose mission is to provide computer knowledge and resources to other nonprofit and non-government organizations (NGOs) in North America and around the globe. We help them choose, implement and sustain the essential technology needed to serve their communities.

60 Minutes Hits the Toxic Jackpot

The CBS News program 60 Minutes just ran a hard-hitting segment titled The Electronic Wasteland on the toxic e-waste trade between the United States and China. It was classic 60 Minutes, featuring human suffering, an apparently unscrupulous businessman, the Chinese underworld, and an intrepid reporter—Scott Pelley—exposing it all. For insiders in the electronics recycling industry, this is an old story. A majority of recyclers increase their profits by shipping hard-to-recycle commodities to buyers in developing countries where the lack of worker safety and environmental regulations have created an e-waste gold rush. Tonight, CBS News became the latest company to profit from this toxic trade.

Beyond Green: Roadmap to Sustainable Computing

Thanks to everyone who attended our presentation at the recent Gartner IT Financial, Procurement & Asset Management Summit in San Diego. Our material was based on a new IDC whitepaper by David Daoud, Beyond Power: IT's Roadmap to Sustainable Computing. We ran a little long, as always happens when people with passion for a topic are given a podium, so I promised to do our Q&A online.

The Facts Behind Depreciation Rates for Used IT Equipment

In the IT industry, it’s long since become conventional wisdom that used PCs and other related technology equipment can depreciate as much as 6% a month, at least early in its lifecycle.

Low Value E-Waste Processing: Are U.S. Scrap Metal Smelters the Missing Link?

In 1977 - before cell phones, CDs and a then-bearish 15-17-cent-a-pound Lead (Pb) market - for a short time I worked overseeing a lead products warehouse. To my surprise, the warehouse consisted of more than 50 lead-base products. Back then, the range of products derived from recycled lead from our smelter next door amazed me. Lead came (the kind you find in Tiffany glass), as well as oil drilling bits, sheet lead, oxide, pigments, an assortment of solders, varieties of lead alloys and ship/boat anodes. One of the best features of the job was interacting with customers and truckers from all across the U.S.

BusinessWeek Exposes the e-Cycling Integrity Gap

I am happy to report that times have changed. When we started Redemtech 10 years ago, many corporate clients questioned the need for responsible electronics recycling. It was common practice in 1998 to use the dumpster for asset disposition, and exporting ewaste to developing countries was perfectly acceptable: not anymore. Most companies now demand responsible management of their surplus electronics, and a few service providers like Redemtech have invested tens of millions to deliver truly accountable results. As BusinessWeek discovered, we are the exception.

Why It Makes Sense To Take the Professional Approach In Managing E-Waste

Not long ago, I was at the E-Scrap Conference, reading an email notice from the California Integrated Waste Management board. It led me to think about the program’s objectives. When I took part in the SB-20 stakeholder’s workshops, these were among the CIWMB’s leading objectives: landfill diversion and toxin avoidance, beginning e-waste recycling industry regulation and developing an enforcement mechanism to generate income.

A Letter to the EPA about Enforcement of Illegal Lead E-waste Exports

Last month, I told you about an e-waste enforcement case in California that opens the door at least slightly on the possibility that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) will step up its enforcement of companies that send e-waste, disguised as scrap metal, to developing nations.   

As Economy Lags, Total Cost Of Ownership Becomes Crucial

Fall means back to school for many families, but at Redemtech, it also marks a time when we’ll be delving even more deeply than usual into the needs of our clients.

The EPA and Illegal E-waste Export Enforcement

The pleasant news came as a mild surprise: the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) had decided to levy a maximum fine of $32,500 on a California company, Jet Ocean Technologies, for improperly exporting a shipment of discarded CRT displays to Hong Kong.

Dreamers, But Not the Only Ones

Blame Redemtech's 10-year anniversary (July 2008) for putting us in a reflective mood. The industry has developed much along the lines envisioned by our 1998 business plan; IT Asset Disposition is today viewed as a critical service which is held accountable for privacy and environmental compliance. Residual value recovery, though still important, is only one component of a value spectrum which also must deliver results for Asset Management, Community Affairs and IT Operations. And we are still dreamers - still imagining, and planning for, what comes next for IT.

Making the G.R.A.D.E.

The IT asset disposition business today is highly fragmented and immature, with no generally accepted standards and few barriers to entry. And because the service smacks of being "green," the industry is awash in an entrepreneurial froth, leaving small electronics recyclers in almost every town of any size.

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?

If People Only Knew

In the field of air and water pollution control equipment, over the years I’ve assisted many companies in lowering emission rates and/or achieving compliance with air quality standards. As a consultant, I’ve had the opportunity to work with a variety of players in the metals processing industry, everything from lead, copper and aluminum smelters to facilities that deal with the remediation of lead and acid in batteries. Most of my experiences stem from the Southern California area, which has the country’s most stringent environmental regulations.

Winning the Earth Day Shell Game

Earth Day has always been a holiday like New Years for boomer environmentalists like me—a festive opportunity for resolutions to improve our lives. So we make an annual effort to recycle more and drive less, and maybe it helps a little. But recently the market has discovered that green sells, so Earth Day is suddenly big in a bad way. Thanks to the numerous electronics recycling events planned for this week, Earth Day may be the single most harmful day of the year for the environment and human health.

After 31 Years of Recycling, Earth Day is a Lifestyle

As Earth Day 2008 grew near, someone happened to ask me my thoughts about the annual holiday. I had to admit that since I’ve been working in the e-waste recycling industry for 31 years, it’s hard to get too excited about Earth Day any longer. For me and many others, every day is Earth Day.

Reuse is the New Latest Thing

In a recent blog on ZDnet, Heather Clancy asks why more effort isn't going into refurbishing technology equipment.  I have a twofold answer: 1) equipment manufacturers continue to make every clever argument they can to entice us to buy new boxes--no surprise, and 2) lots of IT people don't trust the cold hard numbers that quantify the financial benefits of a longer lifecycle.

OEMs Are the Greenest!

Let's pretend that we are all big PC manufacturers, and that we want to sell more boxes. Since everybody's talking about being more "green," maybe we could say that it's more environmentally friendly to trade in that old PC on a new one! Yeah, that's it—older PCs aren't worth as much, so companies might have to pay to recycle them. That makes buying new systems cheaper in the long run than keeping the old ones, right? 

Safety First – Even Outside Our Industry

One man stands with what appears to be an old seat cushion strapped to the top of his head, while another man welds steel while wearing a pair of cheap sunglasses and a piece of newspaper over his face. In another image, three hefty men stand on one end of a flimsy wooden plank while their coworker stands on the opposite end, which extends like a narrow bridge over a precipice so he can reach his work target.

Bob's 2008 Predictions

As the turning of a new year takes me further into middle age (if this is my halfway point, I will live to 106), I feel that I have accumulated enough IT related wisdom to comfortably afford parting with some of it.  The following does not necessarily represent the opinions of the staff or management of Redemtech:

Off-Network Security Risk No Longer Off the Radar

Last summer, Redemtech commissioned a study with the Ponemon Institute to explore the root causes behind data breaches that are providing so many companies with so much bad press. We initially suspected that the trouble begins when assets are disconnected from the network to move or retire equipment. The study was conducted with 735 security professionals from mid-size to large organizations, in both government and the private sector.

E-Wasted, But Planning for a Better Day

I attended the E-Scrap conference in Atlanta last week, where 900 of my colleagues and I spent two days debating the state of electronics recycling. Redemtech is not itself a recycler, but uses partners to process many millions of pounds of electronics each year. So we are part of the industry by association, and we stay in close touch to ensure our downstream vendors are compliant with industry best practices. The various sessions completely ignored a glaring deficiency in the trade: the majority of electronics owners choose NOT to recycle their old computers and other e-junk when they are done with it. Stated more bluntly, the customer doesn't like, or think they need, what we are selling.

The DoD Standard: Certifiable Zero Accountability

My level of disgust for the U.S. Department of Defense is at a new high. Being in the data security business where “DoD compliant” is good currency, I recoil at the mention of the DoD standard for anything. One thing I know - their standards are low. 

Study Finds Off-Network Security Off-Track

My company, Ponemon Institute, has been researching the issue of data breaches: the cost, the business impact, organizations’ response and what seem to be the most prevalent causes. Our latest research project was conducted to find out about loss or theft of data when off-network electronic devices are the target.

Doors Locked, Windows Wide Open

It’s easy to steal data—just walk away with it. Despite billions spent on IT security, the Ponemon Institute’s National Survey on the Insecurity of Off-Network Security has found that many corporations are failing to address the root cause of more than half of all data breaches: the loss or theft of data-bearing assets. The good news is that remediation of off-network security gaps, though not easy, can be straightforward.

The Healthy Benefits of Organic Growth

Nothing makes industry analysts and media wonks happier than when an emerging market begins to consolidate. Companies are bought and sold. The big get bigger, the small guys fail; fortunes are made and jobs are lost. It all makes for some very melodramatic story telling that often overlooks a very fundamental question: is it good for customers?

WEEE: Ready or Not

The European Union's WEEE Directive has been touted as a model for electronics producer responsibility, but many do not realize that years after its passage, the law is only now taking effect—country by country (for example, the Directive went into effect in the U.K. on July 1). From a recycling infrastructure and capacity perspective, the unfortunate truth for WEEE is that Europe is unprepared to accept the tsunami of e-waste that the law will generate, and its implementors' near-term efforts will favor expediency over environmental stewardship.

Honky-Tonk ITAM

Redemtech has been a leading sponsor of the Gartner IT and Software Asset Management Summit for years. The conference was always busy, but our most meaningful customer contact has often occurred at relaxed moments, i.e. parties—adult beverage in hand—when conversation could easily turn to the important stuff like kids, vacations, and critical business issues. This year we decided to forego paid participation at the ITAM conference, and invite a few customers to a genuine Nashville honky-tonk to share some quality time.

Everything I Needed to Know about Good Stewardship I Learned from My Grandparents

Good asset management doesn’t cost, it pays. This truth is often missed by corporate leaders who think that asset management is something business has to afford. The hard lessons my grandparents practiced on the land are a model for everyone who needs to do more with less.

Innovation Needs Six Sigma...Eventually

Business Week's cover story last week was about how Six Sigma nearly killed innovation at 3M. The implication is that innovation is somehow compromised by rigorous, data-driven management, which I think is a false choice.

Relax...We Have a Policy for That

It’s good news that concern for data privacy has become a public priority for so many companies. Trouble is, if policy is crafted at the executive level and passed down to management for execution without a mandate for inspection and measurement of outcomes, a charade often results.