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September 2007
With the environmental movement continuing to grow in influence, and with topics such as global warming - or climate change - regularly gracing the headlines of today's 24-7 news cycle, a burgeoning environmentally conscious worldwide populace is emerging. People now pause to consider the possible ramifications of where waste ends up, what happens to it, and what it all means for the planet and human civilization.
In the computing and information technology (IT) realms, this environmental conscientiousness is becoming particularly pronounced, what with IT hardware often consisting of such materials as lithium batteries, precious and semi-precious metals, and many other potentially toxic and/or valuable waste materials. With increasing industry and legislative directives aimed at regulating the creation, storage and disposal of these IT hardware resources, businesses are pausing to consider the entire IT lifecycle in general, but in particular the "after-life" removal of their existing IT infrastructures and assessing their options.
This increase in environmental awareness and regulation actually represents attractive opportunities for IT resellers, which - in addition to selling IT hardware, software and services packages geared toward environmental responsibility - can now also provide IT removal and disposal services, while providing client companies with possible philanthropic avenues to explore.
"Environmental concerns are playing a very important role in every facet of IT," said Dave Bernstein, president of Fort Lee, N.J.-based AnythingIT, which provides IT asset disposition solutions for resellers in the information technology marketplace for both commercial and government markets. "From procurement and the way products are manufactured, to inventory liability, to the data, to the disposition or disposal of IT resources. Every step of the way is marked by some level of environmental consideration, but it's the area of end-of-life disposal that's really taken off recently, becoming important enough that it's an IT industry segment all by itself."
While prospective clients become more aware of all the factors involved with environmentally managing their IT infrastructure, there will be a growing need for resellers to touch on salient environmental points and incorporate them into their reselling strategies. However, the real opportunity and necessity for resellers going forward may lie in crafting service packages that deal specifically with disposing of end-of-life IT infrastructure and building relationships with companies equipped to properly process IT disposal so they can work them into their reseller service packages. The logistics involved with legally and responsibly disposing of outdated hardware is something many companies often readily hire out to third-party service providers, so it’s in the best interests for resellers to reach out to those third parties.
What's more, IT infrastructure that may be deemed outdated or end-of-life by one company may be just what another organization is looking for.
For example, the Greenwich, Conn.-based National Cristina Foundation is a not-for-profit organization that receives outdated IT infrastructure direct from large companies, as well as from third-party disposal service providers and resellers. After identifying new life uses for those IT resources, the foundation redistributes the computing resources and solutions to people with disabilities, at-risk students and those who may be economically disadvantaged. Through training on those donated resources by its thousands of grassroots partners, National Cristina works to provide those people with more independent and productive lives. NCF is CompTIA's official civic outreach partner.
"A lot of people don't even know organizations like this exist," said Yvette Marrin, co-founder and president of National Cristina. "We have been established since the early 1980s, and what large IT companies and resellers sometimes don't realize is that foundations like this represent an ideal opportunity to donate items they have determined to get rid of regardless; Thus they can basically do philanthropic work that can be highlighted in their selling strategies as a value add for their customer base. So, resellers can assist companies in disposing of IT resources while at the same time help translate disposals into donations especially in areas where they have a business presence. As selling strategies go, I think that's a pretty solid message."
Rob Zopf, vice president of operations for National Cristina agreed. "When you think about it, donating IT resources is about the most environmentally friendly way to get rid of hardware," said Zopf. "It's reuse rather than recycling, and for a very good cause. When you consider most end-of-life IT infrastructure, particularly PCs, usually have about 40 percent more life left in them, reuse makes a lot of sense."
Whether IT retirement or disposal is conducted through donations, resale, recycling, lease return, or some other avenue, the end-of-life disposition of IT resources represents a growing opportunity when it comes to a complete, full IT lifecycle approach to selling strategies. Proper handling of IT equipment that no longer serves a useful purpose to an organization is a reality for any company with an IT infrastructure, whether it consists of a single PC or a datacenter operating several high-end servers and support resources.
"Organizations are increasingly being challenged by this now," said Bernstein. "A lot of times they don't even have a specific person or department that can handle the disposal process. Many resellers are tasked with having to put solutions together to deal with disposal, and they often don't the skill set in place to deal with that. They're going to have to either build that skill set in house, or contract with companies that are equipped to do so."
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