Industry Certifications – Why are They Important?

Environmental certifications are great, but what about data security that could have huge financial and legal impact? According to information compiled by The Ponemon Institute a decade ago, the average cost of a data breach in the United States was nearly $200 per customer record and $5.5 million per breach! And that number has only risen.

The fact is, not all certified providers are equal.  At SSI, industry certifications are an important foundation in demonstrating our capabilities to our customers. But we go far beyond the basics of certification to deliver the solutions to your most complex recycling and lifecycle asset management requirements. SSI has always been highly complimented on our well-organized and clean operations by all the parties who visit us, including the U.S. EPA, leading global electronics OEMs, enterprise customers, auditors, consultants, etc. and more.

SSI stands out in the industry as a leading electronics recycling service provider holding an impressive record of certifications, including:

  • Sustainable Electronics Reuse & Recycling (R2v3): This is the electronics recycling industry’s certification. From 2006 to 2010, SSI’s CEO Jade Lee was invited by the U.S. EPA to be a member of a small stakeholders group comprised of large manufacturers, such as Dell and HP, federal and state EPAs, leading recyclers and environmental groups, to develop the initial Responsible Recycling (R2) Standards for Electronics Recycling. This honor reflects SSI’s standing in the industry. In 2022, SSI was certified to the latest R2v3 Standard’s key Appendices as follows:
    1. Appendix A – Downstream Vendor Management
    2. Appendix B – Logical and Physical Data Sanitization
    3. Appendix C – Testing
    4. Appendix E – Materials Recovery of Used Electronics
  • ISO 14001:2015: Environmental Management System
  • ISO 45001:2018: Health & Safety Management System
  • ISO 9001:2015: Quality Management System
  • NAID AAA certifications, with total of 9 endorsements for Secure Data Destruction:
    1. Hard Drive Overwriting – Facility-based Operations
    2. Hard Drive Overwriting – Onsite Operations
    3. Solid State Devices Overwriting – Facility-based Operations
    4. Solid State Devices Overwriting – Onsite Operations
    5. Hard Drive Physical Destruction – Facility-based Operations
    6. Hard Drive Physical Destruction – Onsite Operations
    7. Solid State Devices Physical Destruction – Facility-based Operations
    8. Solid State Devices Physical Destruction – Onsite Operations
    9. Non-Paper Media Destruction – Facility-based Operations (Data Storage Tape, Flash Drive, Sim Card, DVD, CD)