
Lecturer: Rike Sandlin
Rivervista Partners LLC
info@rivervistapartners.com
769-218-9825
Some highlights:
• Accreditation organizations, such as ANSI and ANAB, create accreditation programs and ensure all organizations are following the same rules.
• Certification scheme owners, like R2 and e-Stewards (BAN), own the standards and requirements for certification.
• Governance of each certification scheme is different; R2 adheres to a strict set of rules while e-Stewards/BAN has more flexibility.
• NAID is owned by i-Sigma focusing on data security while ASCDI focuses on ethics across an organization.
• Attempts to create new standards or certification programs for financial gain have been unsuccessful.
• Organizations advocating for best practices and education are successful.
Rike’s Assessment:
There are different players involved in the certification sector. There are the accreditation organizations like ANSI, the American National Standards Institute (ANSI), the American National Accreditation Board (ANAB) that really create the accreditation programs. These are typically nonprofit organizations. They’re very governance oriented, making sure that everybody is following the same rules for accreditation. This is accreditation not just for the ITAD players, but also for the auditors of the audit firms and even the certification scheme that, for example R2 or SIRI has created. So, there’s that kind of organization coming from ANSI and ANAB accreditation group. Then there is the certification scheme owner. So, this would be R2 of SIRI or the e-Stewards Certification of the Basel Action Network (BAN), who really own the standards and own the requirements around certification. And both of those are nonprofit organizations that are governed differently. So, Siri has really focused on the ANSI accreditation process and multi-stakeholder inputs as they craft their standards and requirements. E-Stewards has taken a more environmental stewardship kind of focus, and so that organization has created its own requirements, mirroring a lot of the R2 requirements. These two are very similar in their outcomes, but their governance is different. E-Stewards through their Basel Action Network has more flexibility in some ways, because Siri is holding the R2 standard to a very strict set of rules to maintain their accreditation. E-Stewards and BAN have more flexibility in their approach and are able to be a bit nimbler in their programs. So, there are pros and cons, advantages and disadvantages to each one of those methods. NAID is owned by the data security-focused i-Sigma association. ASCDI is a trade association focused on ethics across the organization and that’s a key part of their membership, as well as the certification program. So, you really see a variety of approaches, different organizations that are advocating for best practices. Over the years, there have been people that have tried to create new standards or new certification programs. And those were not legitimate. They were attempts to garner profits or to dodge other programs, but they’ve inevitably failed. The organizations that are really committed and advocating for best practices and trying to educate the industry have continued to be successful and that’s exciting.