PODCAST  TRANSCRIPT:

You’ve put a lot of work into those various plans and procedures that are necessary for R2v3 certification. Some of those plans can be used for something more than to just fulfill a requirement. That’s the topic of this week’s Ask the R2 Guru. I’m Roger Greive, with SERI – Champions of Electronics Sustainability.

By making a few adjustments to your Data Sanitization Plan, your R2 Reuse Plan, Focus Materials Management Plan or Facility Security Plan, you can present that information to potential customers as a marketing or communications tool. You’ve worked hard to create those materials, so here’s a chance to use some of it for something else.

When you respond to the various questions on conditions as mentioned in the R2v3 requirements, you are not only documenting your work and procedures, but you’re also creating a chance to tell your story, sometimes in considerable detail, to companies or organizations that might be evaluating your services.

For instance, you could tell your customers a little about the level of security controls you have at your facility to give them confidence that their equipment and data will be safe and secure and that you are serious about the safekeeping of their materials while in the care of your facility.  Or, if your customers are looking for assurance that their data is effectively destroyed, you can provide information on your sanitization process that will prove your technical abilities and give your customers peace of mind. Your R2 Reuse plan could let customers or prospects know a little of your internal sorting, testing and refurbishment process to let them know that you subscribe to the hierarchy of reuse before recycling, and that the disposition of their materials is a multi-step process that you undertake with care and professionalism.

You’ll need to remove any proprietary information or adjust the details of your operation to what you’re comfortable disclosing, but the core of a very sophisticated presentation is right there in those plans and procedures that you’ve created already. Work with your team to edit out anything that you don’t want the public or your competitors to know. For instance, you could take the proprietary details of the steps you use to manage secure data and condense the process into something such as “as part of our seven-step data security process” or “using our internal 23-point checklist.”   Whatever you eventually decide to share, these public versions of your documents show that your R2 facility has thought through the important issues, and that you’ve found ways to deliver your services in ways that are secure, professional, environmentally responsible and legally compliant.

The idea of sharing the content of your R2 documents is of course totally voluntary and you may have reasons to start from scratch in the creation of promotional content or supplementary information in response to customer requests. In some cases, the response to RFPs require supplemental information such as copies of relevant work instructions or procedures, but that process is often accompanied by nondisclosure agreements.

So to sum up, take a look through your plans and procedures to see if anything can be repurposed for outbound communications. Think of it as part of the reuse culture we all deal with every day. You’ve got a good story to tell, and your written plans and procedures can help you tell it.

As always, I hope you’ve enjoyed this episode of Ask The R2 Guru and found it helpful. Thanks to Sean DeVries, Sarah Kim and Jeff Seibert for their assistance in producing this podcast series. If you have any questions or comments or want to suggest a topic for a future podcast please use the Contact Us form on the SERI website. You’ll find us at Sustainable electronics.org.