Course and Presentation:

Describing the ITAD certification landscape

Oct 2, 2023

Analyst: David Daoud

David Daoud is Principal Analyst at Compliance Standards LLC. He has been covering the sector since 2003, while analyzing and forecasting the technology sector. David conducts primary and secondary research and offers advisory services to both the demand and supply sides. David can be reached via his cell phone or WhatsApp at +1 (508) 981-6937.

Describing the ITAD certification landscape

Rike Sandlin Rivervista Partners LLC info@rivervistapartners.com 769-218-9825

Lecturer: Rike Sandlin
Rivervista Partners LLC
info@rivervistapartners.com
769-218-9825

Highlights:

• Different certifications require the foundational management systems such as ISOs, Rios and others.
• The two dominant ITAD and recycling certifications are R2 and e-Stewards.
• Data security is an important concern for enterprises and NAID and ADISA are regional certifications for this.
• ESG certifications focus on ethics (eg. ASCDI) while B Corp certification looks at environmental, social and governance requirements.
• End-user credentials involve ITAM and NAID, while other programs come in the form of standards or assessments.

Rike’s assessment:

There are different layers and different focus areas for many of these certifications. I described earlier the foundational pieces, the ISOs, Rios and other management systems that these other certifications are really built upon, and so all the certifications require some sort of a system underlying them. For example, e-Stewards requires that you have ISO 14001. R2 requires that you have both ISO 14001 and ISO 45001 and in some cases ISO 9001, or RIOS. So, these standards require that you have some of these building blocks, these foundational pieces in place or they won’t certify you. Let’s set aside the management system for a moment: What we’re building on top of that is really the ITAD and recycling certifications. There are really two core ones that that are dominant: R2 and e-Stewards. These two certifications have similar outcomes or results, they just have a bit of a different focus in some ways, but really many people look at them as equivalent certifications, with some nuances. There is also another area that is data security certification. We know that data is one of the biggest risks associated with ITAD and enterprises are especially concerned about that and so what certifications do they look for related to data?  NAID, the National Association for Information Destruction has had a certification for many years, really focused on data security. ADISA is another well-known certification in Europe. NAID is more focused on the US than Europe. So, you see there are some regional differences, but these are very strong certifications for data security. R2 with its most recent revision R2.V3 or version 3, implemented a lot of the same data security requirements that you see in NAID and ADISA within the R2 standards. So, if you’re working with someone that is R2 certified with a scope around data security, then you’re covering your data security bases there as well. There are some other certifications about governance, ethics, ESG and so these are important as well. It’s not just data security or the environment, there are other aspects that are important to enterprises. ASCDI is an organization that came out with a certification program that layers on top of R2 and e-Stewards and the ISOs to focus on ethics, and to check if ITAD vendors behave ethically. B Corp is another certification and that’s outside of the ITAD industry and it’s across all industries. You see farm-to-table restaurants, and Patagonia for example, a great brand that’s achieved the B Corp certification that’s very focused on ESG, looking at environmental, social and governance requirements and how they are managing all of that. So, these are great certifications, very different, but there are some ITAD players that have both of those (R2 and e-Stewards). We talked about the end-user certifications or credentials with ITAM and NAID and then there are some other programs around the world, with some of them being standards, some of others are more like an assessment scheme and not an accredited certification. Some of them are tied to government or regulatory requirements. So, you have a variety around the globe, but the ones we’ve talked about here are really the dominant with the most sophisticated approaches.  

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FAQs

What is the ITAD Academy?

The ITAD academy is a platform dedicated to the spreading of best practice on issues related to enterprise IT asset disposition and recycling. The platform aims at bringing experts and industry leaders, as well as advanced practicioners of ITAD in businesses to share how to think about the practice, how to design it, how to deploy it and how to track and audit. Contents and courses here seek to address issues spanning from data security and the environment, to understanding the secondary market and its pitfalls and benefits.

Who is the ITAD Academy?

The ITAD.Academy is a unit of Compliances Standards LLC (CS), a research and advisory firm solely dedicated to ITAD.  CS shares some of its research content with the Academy, in particular on peer benchmarking and current practices. CS can be found at https://ComplianceStandards.com.

What is Our Sources of Expertise?

The experts called upon to contribute to the content in the Academy are specialists in the whole spectrum of ITAD, IT Asset Managment, information technology, and general management.  Principal Analyst David Daoud has been research technology since the late 1990s, and started tracking ITAD in 2003 as IDC Research Director. David brings a network of experts with a wealth of knowledge and decades of experience. The bios of each expert participating in the lectures and courses are added to the course description so as to showcase their expertise and areas of knowledge.

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