April 20, 2018
What do you think of when you hear the word “ecotourism”?
Perhaps small-group travel to a remote natural destination? Clear skies, crystal pools, virgin forests, or endangered wildlife?
Perhaps you consider destinations like Costa Rica or the Galapagos Islands, Antarctica or Iceland, Kenya or Norway…but regardless of the actual ecosystems you imagine, you probably give at least a passing thought to the importance of protecting these special places.
Of course, our entire planet is a special place…and one that deserves protection. In a perfect world, you wouldn’t need to travel half-way around the globe for ecotourism…you’d find worthy destinations in your own back yard.
Everyday ecological danger
While most of us are aware of the many human activities that negatively impact our air and water – internal-combustion engines, clear-cutting, strip mining, fracking – there’s an insidious danger that’s often overlooked: electronic devices. In fact, you’re almost certainly reading this post on a device that has the potential to poison the planet.
Whenever you upgrade to a new PC, tablet, or smart phone, your old one and its components need to go someplace. If that “someplace” is a landfill or off-shore dumping ground, then components containing barium, lead, lithium, and mercury – along with other toxic components – will almost certainly contaminate water and soil…contamination that may impact thousands of people and degrade the environment for centuries.
Here’s where you come in…
If you manage the IT asset lifecycle for your company, your decisions on what to do with retired assets not only have environmental impact, but that impact is magnified by the volume of assets that leave your “corporate ecosystem” each year. Unless all of your assets are functional and new enough to be remarketed, you need to choose an IT Asset Disposition (ITAD) partner who has the policies, practices, and certifications in place to ensure they are focused on protecting the planet’s ecosystem from the dangerous materials that make up our business tools.
Part of your selection process is straightforward: you’ll want to look for certifications like ISO 9001, ISO 14001, OHSAS 18001, ISO 27001, and e-Stewards/R2. In particular, e-Stewards (in the U.S.) and R2 (in the rest of the world) demonstrate that an ITAD provider meets stringent requirements for safe electronics handling and has a zero-landfill, zero-incineration, and zero-export policy for e‑Waste.
A company holding e-Stewards certification selects its downstream recycling partners based on their conformance to the e-Stewards Standard…then audits each facility and the processes it follows to ensure conformance. Each partner must be able to track and demonstrate the downstream handling and disposition of all relevant focus materials, and is subject to random audits at least annually.
Also look for a partner who is compliant with EPA standards and the WEEE Directive, and is a member of the Coalition for American Electronics Recycling (CAER) and the EPA WasteWise program.
Next, validate how the partner supports your “security ecosystem” through secure data sanitization practices and membership in the National Association for Information Destruction (NAID) and the International Data Sanitization Consortium (IDSC).
Ecotourism for business
Here’s where that “other” kind of ecotourism comes into play: with all the things you need to consider when selecting an ITAD partner, you’ll want to see how that partner handles processing in real time. And how better to start your due diligence than by touring and ITAD facility.
Any reputable ITAD company will welcome clients and prospects to tour and/or audit their facilities, review their certifications, and investigate their downstream recycling partners. Some progressive companies even provide these tours in the context of annual, by-invitation educational events.
Not ready to schedule an in-person visit to an ITAD facility yet? We welcome you to take a video tour of one of our Ingram Micro ITAD Processing Centers just to get your feet wet with business-focused ecotourism here.
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