During the past five-and-a-half years, the Redemtech company blog has operated like a perpetual motion machine, consuming latent energy stemming from a vastly churning and changing IT asset management and disposition industry, while plugging along with topical content that has kept readers informed, enlightened, and, in some cases, amused.
Recently I encountered an interesting technology blog that attempted to disclose some of the hazards of electronic waste disposal. While some valid points were made, such as a brief explanation of the toxins commonly found in e-waste, I discovered a much stronger recommendation in the blog to be startling and rather unsettling.
When you consider that nearly 60% of low-income homes in the U.S. lack a computer, closing the digital divide is a huge challenge. But we’re already starting to make progress with PC Pledge 100. There has been a lot of excitement since we joined with FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski and Connect2Compete to launch this nationwide campaign to close the digital divide through corporate donations of used computers.
The second annual COMMIT! Forum has just concluded two fabulous days in New York City, and firstly, I want to say thank you, and kudos to conference organizers and leadership Richard Crespin, Dirk Olin, Elliot Clark and Kim Gilliam. As someone who came away from last year’s event with a mixed review, I’m especially impressed. Each and every criticism I raised was addressed, as, I’m sure, were those of everyone else who provided feedback. Rarely, in my experience, do I encounter such responsiveness and responsibility.
Organizations that want to change the world for the better often task their corporate social responsibility leaders and their sustainability leaders with doing the job “for the whole company.” For many professionals taking on these huge challenges, it can feel like it’s too much – too much to accomplish, too little established, lack of resources, lack of empowerment. The Corporate Responsibility Officers’ Association has tasked itself with remedying many of these problems with explicit goals of defining best practices for corporate responsibility professionals and promoting “the practice and profession of corporate responsibility as a driver of business and social value.”
My journey in taking on the role of director of the Serious Good program here at Redemtech started in Chicago, when the Citizenship & Public Affairs Director at Microsoft, Shelley Stern Grach, introduced me to Jill Vaské, the executive vice president at Redemtech. What was supposed to be a one-hour meeting lasted more than two hours.
In today's publicly traded marketplace, the bottom line is no longer based solely on the profits generated for shareholders. In order for businesses to remain competitive they must also live up to the expectations of their customers, employees and society as a whole. That requires the utilization of responsible business practices when managing the supply chain from the time of procurement all the way through to recycling for the return of raw materials to the manufacturing channel.
ITAD data destruction and sustainability is a point of policy confluence where taking a broader view of secondary impacts, can deliver positive results in all aspects of the triple bottom line. By focusing on methods that maintain functionality, policies around data destruction can enable broader social, financial, and environmental benefits.
One of the more endearing moments of a press conference held earlier this week at the Latin American Youth Center (LAYC) in Washington, D.C., where Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Julius Genachowski and partners from Connect2Compete (C2C), Redemtech and the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) gathered to announce the launch of PC Pledge 100, a nationwide computer recycling and donation initiative, actually came after the press conference.
Yesterday was a great day for kids who need computers – and for Redemtech. We joined Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Julius Genachowski at a press conference in Washington D.C. to launch PC Pledge 100, a campaign designed to rally companies to convert surplus into success by donating at least 100 gently used PCs each year to Connect2Compete (C2C), a nationwide effort to improve digital literacy in low-income communities. You can watch a recording of the press announcement here.
Through this forum, we hope to raise awareness of the issues and challenges inherent in managing IT equipment to the highest standards of financial, social and environmental responsibility. We welcome you to join the dialogue. Learn more»
