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WASTE OF ELECTRIC AND ELECTRONIC EQUIPMENT AND IT GOVERNANCE:

A framework

Paulo Ernani Bergamo dos Santos

Tax auditor, Sao Paulo, Brazil

Bachelor degree in engineering and in Law

MBA in IT Governance and Sustainability

Master degree in History of Science

Master of Public Administration in Environmental Science and Policy at

Columbia University of the City of New York (in progress)

paulobergamo@hotmail.com

Abstract - The purpose of this paper is to show the design of a framework related to the companies’ IT governance

of the waste of electric and electronic equipment generated in IT as a complementary material of our presentation

at Emerging Green Conference, Latin America session, on September 22th, Portland, Oregon. This framework

was developed to be incorporated into a generic framework of IT governance, contributing to the alignment

between IT, sustainability and business models, and so, to the decrease of negative impacts on the environment

and human health originated from this waste along the entire chain of production, consume and disposal. It will

be shown the application of this framework for COBIT, version 4.1. The topic is relevant to the extent that the

growth of waste of electric and electronic equipment is becoming a problem of planetary proportions, becoming

urgent the incorporation of sustainability into IT governance.

Keywords – Waste of electric and electronic equipment, framework, IT governance

1. Introduction

It seems that we are in an era of strong paradigmatic change. We don’t know if we are in the beginning or

in the middle of this huge transformation but we sure know that Technology, especially Information Technology

(IT), is playing a central role in it.

From 2000 to 2015, there has been an increase in subscriptions of mobile cellular of around 10 times,

from 738 million subscriptions in 2000 to 7 billion subscriptions in 2015 (International Telecommunication

Union, ITU, 2015).

In 2000, there were 400 million Internet users while now in 2015, there are 3.2 billion, meaning there are

now 8 times more people connected by Internet (ITU, 2015).

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People all around the globe are now connected by mobile cellular and Internet, a world without borders.

0Decades before, businesses had already adopted IT, impacting their internal structure and

competitiveness advantage (Porter, Millar, 1985).

As pointed out by Michael E. Porter and Victor E. Millar (1985), “Between 1958 and 1980 the time for

one electronic operation fell by a factor of 80 million. Department of Defense studies show that the error rate in

recording data through bar coding is 1 in 3,000,000, compared to 1 error to 300 manual data entries”.

The function of Information Technology has been changing over time, from a strictly oriented function of

maximizing the company's IT infrastructure to being a provider of the services requested by customers, and

subsequently, to IT functioning as a strategic partner for enabling new business (Sallé, 2004; p. 02).

The increasing demand for IT now pervades nearly all areas of a company, and this demand leverages the

growing investment in IT by businesses, the equivalent of more than 4.2% of their annual revenue from average

investments (Weill; Ross, 2006, p. 15).

Thus, corporate governance needs to be concerned with integrate business and IT governance in order to

assure joint decision-making among managers, IT experts and business leaders, and in doing so, adding value to

the company.

The increasing IT use scenario is accompanied, however, by an annual growth of waste of electric and

electronic equipment (WEEE) even higher than the growth of solid waste as a whole (United Nations, UN, 2011,

p. 41).

This universe of equipment and devices, access networks (residential, corporate and wireless access) and

physical means (copper wire, coaxial cable, fiber, terrestrial radio channels and satellite radio channels) forms a

generator set of a high amount of electronic waste.

Aside from the difficulty of discarding all this volume properly, the electric and electronic equipment

(EEE) production and its use demand high consumption of energy and generate pollution, emissions of GHG and

waste of hazardous materials like lead and mercury, as registered by the International Labor Organization

(Ludgren, K., 2012, p. 58-59).

Accordingly to “The global e-waste monitor” study of the United Nations University (Baldé, C.P., Wang,

F., Kuehr, R., Huisman, J., 2015, p. 22), in 2014 the world generated around 41.8 Mt of WEEE but only 6.5 Mt

of this total was formally treated, i.e., more than 84% of WEEE generated globally last year was not treated.

Furthermore, transboundary circulation of WEEE and unofficial collection of WEEE in developed and

developing countries are still unknown (Baldé, C.P., Wang, F., Kuehr, R., Huisman, J., 2015, p. 23).

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These data confirm how serious has become the growth of unwanted outputs generated along the chain of

production, consumption and disposal of EEE and WEEE, and the inefficient energy consumption in the process.

An analysis of the sustainability report of 125 enterprises from the Financial Times Global 500 (ranking

the world’s largest corporations) has shown that 64% of these enterprises presented Sustainable Procurement as

a priority objective of their Corporate Social Responsibility policy. (UNEP, 2011, p. 23).

A comparative study of the return on investments of a group of 30 companies focused on stakeholders and

of the return generated by companies focused mainly on profit - represented by 500 companies that make up the

Standard and Poor's SP500 index - showed that the profitability of prior companies was 100% higher than that

obtained by the later companies focused on profit in the short term (three years), 200% higher in the medium term

(over five years) and almost 700% higher in the long term (10 years) (Wolke, Sisodia, Sheth apud Mackey, 2007).

So, business, IT and sustainability should be aligned in order to leverage values for the business and its

stakeholders.

1.1 Objective

The objective of this work is the development of a framework for the governance of the waste of electric

and electronic waste generated in IT, involving green procurement, green operation and the management of

WEEE generated inside the company (collection and disposal of electronic waste generated in it for reuse,

recycling and storage of the wastes in accordance with international and national technical standards), in order to

introduce or reinforce sustainability practices in IT governance of the firm.

1.2 Rationale

The generation and disposal of waste of electric and electronic equipment has become a worldwide

problem, both because of its increasing volume and its harmfulness to the environment and human health, since

they carry many hazardous substances in its composition.

With the emergence of an entrepreneurial vision that seeks to integrate environment protection to business

strategy and IT goals, it becomes relevant the introduction or reinforcement of companies’ governance of the

waste of electric and electronic equipment generated in IT, since a significant portion of this waste is generated

by equipment and components from IT.

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The inexistence of a framework for the governance of WEEE in the company turn it in an unsustainable

organization which is contributing to WEEE growing volume and toxicity, and in doing so, contributing to the

WEEE negative impact on environment and human health, as shown in Figure 1.

Figure 1 – The scenario of unsustainable IT

Source – author’s elaboration

So, EEE, components and accessories of IT can cause negative impact on environment and human health

in the absence or inefficient IT governance linked to the degree at which the sustainability is integrated to the

business model of the firm.

On the other hand, the incorporation of this framework to IT governance would encourage green

purchasing, green operation and lower generation of WEEE, and its proper disposal, in order to reduce the

negative impact of WEEE on the environment and human health, as shown in Figure 2. Since to our knowledge

there is no such framework in IT governance frameworks, it is justifiable the development of this specific

framework for WEEE management.

Figure 2 – The scenario of sustainable IT

Source – author’s elaboration

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1.3 Methodology

The organization can generate WEEE and have negative impact on the environment and human health not

only at the production phase but also at earlier and later stages of the production itself; this understanding led to

the waste hierarchy approach of the European Union in its Directive 2008/98/EC, which stated the priority order

of “prevention” (“measures taken before a substance, material or product has become waste”), “prepare for re-

use”, “recycling” and “disposal” in waste prevention and management, as shown in Figure 3.

Figure 3 – Prevention of waste generation and management of waste generated

Source – adapted from UNEP

In the traditional view, the production and use of a product take place in one-way process, from the

extraction of raw materials to its disposal after consumption.

In the cyclic view, this one-way process incorporates the idea of reuse, recycling and recovering of the

product at the end of its useful lifetime or its conversion “into other products" (Manahan;. 2007, p 546), an ideal

infinite cyclic process called “cradle to reincarnation” (Patel, K apud Manahan, 2007, p. 547), as shown in Figure

4.

PRODUCT WASTE

PREVENTION OF WASTE GENERATION MANAGEMENT OF WASTE GENERATED

Re-Use

Prepare for

re-use

Extraction Production Consume Waste Disposal

Recycling Green

Procurement

Green

Operation

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Figure 4 – One-way and cyclic process

Source – Adapted from Manahan, 2007, p. 547

This conception of industrial ecology and the hierarchical approach of the Directive 2008/98/EC will be

the basis for building the framework.

The process of treating electronic waste for IT governance frameworks have generic character, not

restricted to a single specific IT framework. But for more detailed design effects of this process, it will be here

applied into a widely consolidated IT governance framework, the COBIT, in its version 4.1.

It will then use the some methodological tools of COBIT, considering the set of IT goals and IT processes,

with the central axis of the IT process called "DS8: Managing Services and Incident Center".

In this work, the application of the framework of WEEE governance into COBIT will be restricted to its

section 1 (principal objectives and metrics related objectives of IT governance) and section 2 (control objectives)

of the COBIT 4.1 framework.

2. THE FRAMEWORK

The framework will be focusing on the prevention of WEEE generation (green procurement of electric

and electronic equipment, components and accessories, and green operation) and on the management of WEEE

generated in TI of a company.

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The design of the framework, therefore, is based on one "pre-generation WEEE" phase elaborated inside

the company and constituted by green purchase and eco-efficient method of operation, and on one phase "after

generation” of WEEE that covers the collection and dismantling of WEEE, and the delivery of WEEE to the

Center of Discard, as showed in Figure 5.

Figure 5 – Prevention, management and flux of WEEE, and information, along the process

Source – adapted from Directive 2008/98/EC

So, the prevention of WEEE generation and the management of WEEE generated in TI will be handle

inside the company. After the management of WEEE, it will be delivery to the Center of Disposal outside the

company and this center will be responsible for delivering the WEEE for recycling, prepare for re-use or disposal,

and also will be responsible for giving back the information about the use of the WEEE delivery for the company.

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This information is crucial for a sustainable company, since it will be the feedback not only to IT and

business governors about the performance of the firm in governing its WEEE but also to the corporate governors

on how to deal with this information with the stakeholders.

The framework for WEEE governance can be incorporated in the COBIT 4.1, section 1 and section 2, as

follow.

2.1 INCORPORATION OF PRINCIPLES AND METRICS RELATED TO WEEE INTO COBIT 4.1

The framework related to the companies’ governance of the waste of electric and electronic equipment

generated in IT can be incorporated into COBIT 4.1, section 1, in a way that allows us to understand the “big

picture” of the generic framework of the waste of electric and electronic equipment generated IT governance.

Control over the IT process of:

Waste of electric and electronic equipment generated from the use of IT equipment

That satisfies the business requirement of IT:

Sustainability in IT

Be focusing on:

Green procurement, green operation, collection and disposal of waste of electric and electronic

waste generated in IT for reuse, recycling and adequate disposal in accordance with international and

national technical standards.

Is achieved by:

Purchasing policy that prioritizes electronic and electric equipment with eco design, eco-efficient,

less hazardous, easy maintenance and easy replacement.

Procurement policy that prioritizes cables and electronics components that do not contain harmful

substances - including packaging - and that come with manufacturer's label indicating that should be

recycled or prepare for re-use.

Monitoring the electronic and electric equipment during its entire life cycle, as well as its parts,

its electronics components and cables during its consumption and final disposal.

Disassembly, segregation, readiness for delivery and delivery the WEEE for authorized Center of

Disposal that deals properly with the waste of electric and electronic equipment received, in accordance

with national and international standards.

Certification that the electronic waste generated and screened at authorized disposal centers are

properly recycled, reused or stored in accordance with international and national technical standards.

Monitoring the final destination of WEEE delivered for the Center of Disposal.

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2.2 INCORPORATION OF CONTROL OBJECTIVES RELATED TO WEEE INTO COBIT 4.1

The framework related to the companies’ governance of the waste of electric and electronic equipment

generated in IT can be incorporated into COBIT 4.1, section 2, in a way that allows us to understand how the

organization can control the internal process of the generic framework of the waste of electric and electronic

equipment generated IT governance.

Measured by:

- Total number of green purchase for IT / total number of purchases in IT / period of time.

- Total number of electric and electronic equipment purchased by green procurement / Total number of

electric and electronic equipment purchased / period of time

- Total amount spent on green purchase in IT / Total amount spent on green purchase in IT / period of

time.

- Total number of components purchased by green procurement / Total number of components purchased

/ period of time.

- Total units of cables purchased by green procurement / Total units of cables purchased / period of time.

- Cumulative time of use of each device, component and cable / respective life cycle period

- Type of WEEE segregated / Total of WEEE segregated / period of time.

- Total number/weight/volume of WEEE collected by the Center of Discard/ period of time

- Total number of deliveries to the Center of Discard / period of time

- Quantity of WEEE delivered to the Center of Discard that were recycled, re-used / period of time.

- Quantity of mandatory requirements about WEEE followed by the company / Total quantity of

mandatory and no mandatory requirements about WEEE by international and national rules on WEEE /

period of time

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3. CONCLUSION

The waste of electric and electronic equipment generation and disposal have become a matter of great

magnitude for contemporary society in its quest for environmental protection and for protection of human health.

Considering the huge amount of WEEE generated in the world, its toxicity and the environmental

degradation arising from its improper disposal, any business effort for alignment its business to sustainability is

extremely welcome and necessarily involves the adoption of internal processes linked to the generation and

disposal of WEEE.

To create value for its stakeholders, organizations have sought to involve IT into their business models;

so, IT governance must also incorporate sustainability into their processes, which can be become effective by the

incorporation of a framework of waste of electric and electronic equipment into IT governance.

As noted, it is possible the inclusion of such framework into IT governance, in order to generate value for

the organization by the positive impact to its stakeholders and society as a whole, providing the most appropriate

management of the waste of electric and electronic equipment generated by the company.

P1. Central of service: Establish a central service, which serves as an interface

between IT and the final recipient of waste of electric and electronic equipment.

P2. Accompaniment: Follow the green purchase of hardware, components and

cables for the IT infrastructure. Follow the generation of waste of electric and

electronic equipment and send such waste to the central of service.

P3. Receiving WEEE: Establish the receiving process of electronic waste generated

from IT, including its sorting and packaging by type.

P4. WEEE destination: Establish the allocation process of electronic waste

generated from IT and monitoring it since its delivery until its arrival at the place of

destination.

P5. Incidents: register, solution and closure: Establish a function and a system that

allow the registration, solution and closure of incidents arising in the whole process

of WEEE generation.

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REFERENCE

Baldé, C.P., Wang, F., Kuehr, R., Huisman, J. (2015). The global e-waste monitor – 2014. United Nations

University, IAS – SCYCLE, Bonn, Germany.

Hafer, C., Cantor, D. E., Dai, Jing. (2012). “The competitive determinants of a firm’s environmental management

activities: Evidence from US manufacturing industries”. Journal of Operations Management, 30 (2012) 69-84.

International Telecommunication Union. ITU. (2015). ICT Facts and Figures 2015.

Lundgren, Karin. (2012). The global impact of e-waste: addressing the challenge; International Labour Office,

Programme on Safety and Health at Work and the Environment (SafeWork), Sectoral Activities Department

(SECTOR). – Geneva: ILO.

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Manahan, S. E. (2007). Environmental Science and Technology: A Sustainable Approach to Green Science and

Technology. Boca Raton: Taylor & Francis Group,

Porter, M. E.; Millar, V. E. (1985). “How Information gives you competitive advantage; the information

revolution is transforming the nature of competition”. Harvard Business Review, 63(4).

Sallé, M. (2004). “IT Service Management and IT Governance: Review, Comparative Analysis and their Impact

on Utility Computing”. Palo Alto, CA: HP.

Stilpon, N. (2000). “International Efforts to Improve Corporate Governance: Why and How”. Organization for

Economic Cooperation and Development, OCDE.

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All. UN.

United Nations Environmental Programme (2007). UNEP. Life Cycle Management: A Business Guide to

Sustainability. UNEP.

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Procurement for the UN System. UNEP.

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Cristina M. B. Carvalho. São Paulo: M Books.

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GLOSSARY

Corporate governance – “Corporate governance encompasses the relationships and ensuing patterns of

behaviour between different agents in a limited liability corporation; the way managers and shareholders but also

employees, creditors, key customers and communities interact with each other to form the strategy of the

company. This is, one might say, the behavioural side of corporate governance. But corporate governance also

refers to the set of rules that frame these relationships and private behaviours, thus shaping corporate strategy

formation. These can be the company law, securities regulation, listing requirements’. But they may also be

private, self-regulation. This is what we could call the normative side of corporate governance” (Stilpon, N.,

2000).

Disposal - “disposal’ means any operation which is not recovery even where the operation has as a secondary

consequence the reclamation of substances or energy. Annex I sets out a non-exhaustive list of disposal

operations” (Directive 2008/98/EC).

Eco-efficiency – “It is a management strategy that combines environmental and economic performance. It enables

more efficient production processes and the creation of better products and services while reducing resource use,

waste, and pollution along the entire value chain. It creates more value with less impact by unlinking goods and

services from the use of nature. Not only can it save production costs but can also open up new sources of revenue

for companies” (World Business Council of Sustainable Development, Learning Module, p. 16).

EEE - ‘electrical and electronic equipment’ or ‘EEE’ means equipment which is dependent on electric currents

or electromagnetic fields in order to work properly and equipment for the generation, transfer and measurement

of such currents and fields and designed for use with a voltage rating not exceeding 1 000 volts for alternating

current and 1 500 volts for direct current” (Directive 2012/19/EU).

Governance – “the processes and interactions by which the organization engages and consults with its

stakeholders and accounts for its achievements. Governance characterizes how things are decided and then

realized within an organization, be it a government or a company” (UNIDO, UNEP, 2010, p. 9).

Green procurement - “A concept for reducing the environmental burden by buying products with a reduced

environmental impact compared to similar products” (UNEP, 2007).

Green product - “A green product is one that uses smaller amounts of materials that are less hazardous to produce

and that has a lower potential to expose people or the environment to hazardous substances, pollutants, and wastes

in its use and disposal” (Manahan, 2007, p. 11, 12, 16).

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Green Technology - “Technology applied in a manner that minimizes environmental impact and resource

consumption and maximizes economic output relative to materials and energy input” (Manahan, 2007, p. 11, 12,

16).

Hazardous waste – “hazardous waste’ means waste which displays one or more of the hazardous properties listed

in Annex III” (Directive 2008/98/EC).

Industrial Ecology – “Industrial Ecology is simply a comprehensive approach to production, distribution,

utilization, and termination of goods and services in a manner that maximizes mutually beneficial utilization of

materials and energy along enterprises thereby minimizing consumption of nonrenewable raw materials and

energy while preventing the production of wastes and pollutants” (Manahan, 2007, p. 530).

Prepare for re-use – “preparing for re-use’ means checking, cleaning or repairing recovery operations, by which

products or components of products that have become waste are prepared so that they can be re-used without any

other pre-processing” (Directive 2008/98/EC).

Prevention – “prevention’ means measures taken before a substance, material or product has become waste, that

reduce: (a) the quantity of waste, including through the re-use of products or the extension of the life span of

products; (b) the adverse impacts of the generated waste on the environment and human health; or (c) the content

of harmful substances in materials and products” (Directive 2008/98/EC).

Product Life Cycle – “The life of a product in a market with respect to business sales and profits over time.

There are five stages to the product life cycle: product development, introduction, growth, maturity and decline”

(Council of Supply Chain Management, CSMP, 2013).

Product Life Cycle Management –“The process of managing the entire lifecycle of a product from its

conception, design, development and manufacture, to management of its introduction, growth and decline”

(Council of Supply Chain Management, CSMP, 2013).

Recovery – “recovery’ means any operation the principal result of which is waste serving a useful purpose by

replacing other materials which would otherwise have been used to fulfil a particular function, or waste being

prepared to fulfil that function, in the plant or in the wider economy. Annex II sets out a non-exhaustive list of

recovery operations” (Directive 2008/98/EC);

Recycling – “recycling’ means any recovery operation by which waste materials are reprocessed into products,

materials or substances whether for the original or other purposes. It includes the reprocessing of organic material

but does not include energy recovery and the reprocessing into materials that are to be used as fuels or for

backfilling operations” (Directive 2008/98/EC).

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Re-use – “re-use’ means any operation by which products or components that are not waste are used again for

the same purpose for which they were conceived” (Directive 2008/98/EC).

Technology - “Technology refers to the ways in which humans do and make things with materials and energy

toward practical ends” (Manahan, 2007, p. 11, 12, 16).

Waste - “waste’ means any substance or object which the holder discards or intends or is required to discard”

(Directive 2008/98/EC).

Waste management – “waste management’ means the collection, transport, recovery and disposal of waste,

including the supervision of such operations and the after-care of disposal sites, and including actions taken as a

dealer or broker” (Directive 2008/98/EC).

WEEE - ‘waste electrical and electronic equipment’ or ‘WEEE’ means electrical or electronic equipment which

is waste within the meaning of Article 3(1) of Directive 2008/98/EC, including all components, sub-assemblies

and consumables which are part of the product at the time of discarding” (Directive 2012/19/EU).