The Green Initiative @ ITS

Asset disposal policies should minimize Vanderbilt’s liabilities around data security, regulatory requirements, and the environment; minimize disposal costs and maximize return on investment.

Disposal options include:

• Donation: Donate the asset to a school, library, charity, or other not-for-profit organization.
• Dumping: Throw the equipment away.
• Lease Return: Return the equipment at the end of its lease period to the vendor.
• Recycling: Break down computers into components and components into raw materials for reuse.
• Redeployment: Redistribute excess equipment to business units that need it and old equipment to users with less demanding processing needs.
• Remarketing: Sell the equipment to a domestic or international buyer for used or refurbished hardware. Note that the resale value of equipment depreciates quickly. It is estimated to be 5 to 7 percent of the original equipment cost during the third year, and close to zero during the fourth year.
• Storage: Store the equipment on or off site.
• Outsource: Hire an asset disposition service to manage the data destruction and equipment disposition requirements.

Redeployment is recommended for equipment that is less than two years old. Remarketing is recommended for equipment that is two to three years old. Donation, recycling, and scraping are recommended for equipment that is over three years old.

Pros and cons for each option are summarized below:

Donation:

Pros:

• Donation enhances a business unit’s reputation.

Cons:

• The business unit must destroy the data before it donates the equipment.
• The business unit must deal with the logistics of donating the equipment.
• There may be transportation costs.

Dumping:

Pros:

• There are no pros for dumping equipment in landfills even if it is obsolete or nonfunctioning.

Cons:

• Hazardous wastes such as lead, mercury, cadmium, polychlorinated biphenyls, and chromium may leach into the ground water supply. Exposure to these wastes can cause developmental problems, neurological damage, and cancer.
• If state, federal, and/or international regulations are not following when throwing equipment away, the business unit risks fines, lawsuits, and/or embarrassment.
• Dumping does not alleviate data security, logistical, and transportation costs.

Lease Return:

Pros:

• The vendor is responsible for destroying the data and disposing the asset.

Cons:

• Late equipment returns can result in potentially expensive, unplanned lease extensions.
• If the lease agreement includes an option to buy the equipment at the end of the lease, and if the organization elects to use this option, the business unit is responsible for destroying the data and disposing the asset.
• If the hardware is not wiped prior to the return, the lease agreement should require the supplier to destroy the data and verify the destruction.
• The business unit must deal with the logistical and transportation costs of returning the equipment.

Outsource:

Pros:

• Asset Disposition Services will identify and implement the appropriate disposition option for each system.
• The service should follow your data destruction policy, pick up the equipment from your site, transport it to a processing facility, and certify that all of your requirements have been met.
• Data wiping options include wiping the data yourself before the equipment is picked up, waiting for the supplier to wipe the data on site prior to pick up, or having the supplier wipe the data during or after pickup.

Cons:

• A contract that governs the terms and conditions of the service and that includes your business requirements should be executed. The supplier should issue certificates of recycling. It should also indemnify its customers against environment and data security liability.
• The supplier will need to be monitored to ensure it is meeting contract, data security, and environment regulations.

Recycling:

Pros:

• Recycling is an environmentally responsible option.
• A business unit’s reputation can be enhanced by recycling equipment.

Cons:

• Recycling services must be audited regularly to guarantee data security and recycling policies are followed.
• Recycling does not alleviate logistical and transportation costs.
• If recycling policies are not followed, legal liability can result.

Redeployment:

Pros:

• The data security liability is lessened since the hardware is retained in the organization.
• The business unit gets an additional return on its investment by reusing the equipment internally.

Cons:

• Data destruction and asset disposal requirements are delayed but not removed.
• The business unit must deal with the logistics of redeploying the equipment.

Remarketing:

Pros:

• The business unit receives compensation for selling its equipment.
• Reusing assets keep them out of landfills.

Cons:

• The business unit must remarket the equipment or hire a remarketing service.
• Data must be destroyed before the equipment is remarketed.

Storage:

Pros:

• Disposal liabilities are deferred.

Cons:

• Disposal liabilities are not removed
• The business unit may incur storage and transportation costs.
• The remarketing value of the asset is wasted.
• The business unit must deal with the logistics of placing the equipment in storage.

   

Data Destruction:

Data destruction options include deleting files, formatting disks, overwriting disks, and physically destroying the disk. Note that during the useful life of the drive, data should be encrypted to help prevent exposure of the data if the equipment is lost, stolen, hacked into, or not wiped at end-of-life.

Since data can be recovered after files have been deleted and disks have been formatted, these two methods are not recommended.

Overwriting is recommended and should include:

• Writing new data to the entire disk (including the blank areas and bad sectors) at least three times
• Wiping the Windows swap file area
• Reporting failures in the wiping process that would justify the physical destruction of the drive

If the wiping process fails, the disk and its data bearing platters should be destroyed. A disk may be destroyed by exposing it to a magnet or shredding it.