![]() Being required to provide safe work conditions, to be honest with your customers and to follow the law are not difficult thresholds for any business that wants to be around for the long run. ![]() But the truth is that neither standard sets a high bar. Of course, at their core, these certifications exist to help ensure processing companies do the right thing inside their facilities and when it comes to chain of custody. Meanwhile, e-Stewards has been told for years that its fee structure is a hurdle many companies just don’t want to jump and many find to be intrusive. R2 has become more complicated and expensive, adding an endorsement system that has angered some R2-certified companies. I would argue that neither organization has shown much interest in listening to you, the certification buyer. The main question really is: How much of those membership fees are being spent to aid the certified recyclers in the marketplace?įrom looking at the 990 filings, the answer is not much. If you spend $50,000-$90,000 on your certification, are you getting value? Are you booking business strictly based on the certifications to cover those costs every year? Are you booking business that actually doubles your certification investment? Would that $50,000-$90,000 be better spent investing in equipment or employee retention? Or setting up a system to get more information to clients? You, the recyclers, are paying the freight for these initiatives. ![]() Both have budgets and goals they need to meet. But the cost to stay in those two clubs is high. Now it’s certainly true R2 and e-Stewards have served us and helped the industry grow to be better educated and more professional. What happens if that individual retires or becomes ill? Is there a business-continuation plan to protect my investment in an e-Stewards certification? Was any money spent on advertising to help drive business to e-Stewards or just to recruit more companies into the certification pipeline?įor SERI, the main question is: Is any of its revenue spent to help drive business to R2 recyclers? For BAN: Is this program sustainable? What happens to my e-Stewards certification if BAN folds? BAN is mostly a one-man show. Certification fees brought in $1,689,774 in revenue.īoth filings raise some questions. The executive director was paid $159,650. The SERI filing shows gross revenue at $1,746,118, salaries of $508,775 and a net revenue of $742,097. Another $314,701 was spent on other salaries. Spending on travel totaled $39,234 and spending for advertising was $7,514. The executive director was paid $133,741. The organization reported only $83,351 in grant revenue, meaning the bulk of the revenue is from e-Stewards. The most recent filings publicly available online for both organizations cover 2019.īAN’s filing shows gross revenue of $838,358 with total expenses of $817,088 for a net gain of $21,270 (the year prior, BAN had a net loss of $77,785). I’ve looked at the IRS 990 filings for both Basel Action Network (BAN), the owner of the e-Stewards standard, and Sustainable Electronics Recycling International (SERI), the owner of R2. And many times my conclusion has been that the sector should dump the existing certifications and start fresh with a new one. Recently, much of my thinking on the R2 versus e-Stewards topic has been a “What would I do?” exercise. Now, semi-retired, I can observe the industry from a nearly neutral position (I say “nearly” because I am firmly on the side of the recyclers, regardless of which certification they hold). After my departure from recycling operations, I took a shot at working for e-Stewards on the certification side of the fence. Eventually, our organization became e-Stewards pledged and then e-Stewards certified. ![]() I started in the e-scrap industry before there were any certifications. Add in a competitor with a different certification, and now you have to sell your services, cost structure AND your certification choice. It is difficult enough to sell a prospect on your services. I’ve always thought it was a waste for our industry to have two certifications driving a wedge in our community by fighting for the same market. We have had years of these opposing camps and it has been confusing, with more than a little mud-slinging. If you are reading this publication, you know the ins and outs of the two certifying organizations in our industry, R2 and e-Stewards. The author calls for the creation of a new certification program.
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