By Takalane Khashane, Managing Director, Iron Mountain South Africa

Sustainability has become more than an imperative for businesses of all sizes and across all types of sectors. It has transformed the nature of global, regional, and local competition, and become a driver of future growth. Research is beginning to show the results of this transformation in action – even in developing markets such as South Africa, which have typically lagged behind their more developed peers who have had a head start in launching sustainability initiatives.

The Boston Consulting Group report, The Sustainability Imperative in Emerging Markets, found that companies with strong reputations for meeting environmental, social, and governance (ESG) challenges in emerging markets perform better financially, attract lower-cost investment capital, deliver stronger business-value creation, enjoy greater access to international markets, have higher customer satisfaction, win and retain top talent, and build resilience to better manage risk and disruption.

Both the incentives and rewards for prioritising sustainability are clear and substantial. However, the process of making a company’s own internal processes, systems and operations more sustainable can be complex as well as time and resource-intensive. And there is one area that is critical, but often overlooked: asset management and disposition.  

Technology is evolving rapidly and refresh cycles are shrinking. For many businesses, IT assets – such as computers, servers, hard drives and other data-bearing devices – are piling up in offices or making their way into landfills. The simple reason for this is that while policies exist around asset procurement, there are none specifically around the disposal and destruction of assets.

A lack of proper asset lifecycle management and disposition strategies not only introduces significant business risk through the inadvertent disclosure of data, it also hampers sustainability efforts. More businesses need to develop and implement IT asset disposition (ITAD) strategies – including remarketing, recycling, and media destruction – to minimise the risks associated with poor data security and environmentally harmful recycling. And they need to implement these policies at speed.

Factors to consider in a fit-for-purpose asset disposition strategy

The key for IT leaders developing their ITAD strategies, according to Gartner, is to assess whether they have the right processes and services to support their specific business environments, budgets and risk appetites. It needs to be assessed against the backdrop of the end-to-end technology life cycle, from requisition, procurement and deployment to maintenance and disposition. The ITAD process should focus not only on cost, but also the material risks – to the bottom line and brand equity – of improper disposal.

There are various factors IT and business leaders need to consider when implementing an ITAD strategy – and the five key ones are: security, cost savings, sustainability, compliance and consolidation.

Depending on business needs, end-of-life equipment may be destroyed through shredding or grinding. Or assets may be refurbished and remarketed, which allows businesses to extend the useful life of their IT assets and recuperate maximum market value – ultimately minimising total cost of ownership. Those that can’t be used and resold can be diverted from the waste stream through recycling.

No matter how equipment is disposed of, though, the data should be secured and the assets tracked and documented at every stage of the disposal process. An effective ITAD strategy needs to incorporate multiple checkpoints, protections and an audit trail, as well as verification of data erasure and asset destruction – in line with all global, regional and local regulations and industry standards. Consolidating the process through one vendor helps ensure the secure and compliant disposal of data and also allows businesses to keep track of their environmental impact and derive business value and benefits out of running a more sustainable business.

As sustainability continues to gain traction as a business imperative and business-value creation tool, companies will need to keep up – and increasingly that means prioritising asset lifecycle management and disposition. Those that take the lead will reap the value, but those that fall behind risk losing their competitive edge.