ESG and Electronic Data Destruction: Understanding Governance

Posted in Blog

Glenn Laga

Absolutely essential to the electronic data destruction business, governance is our lead dog in the ESG pillars. It has to be.  Our reputation and our business depend upon the trust our clients have in our services.

As we shred hard drives, erase servers or move IT equipment and live data centers, Guardian is vigilant about security compliance and cognizant of risk.

ESG Governance for Data Destruction providers

eMedia or Electronic data destruction, is the secure destruction of data by shredding, erasure, degaussing and mutilation to ensure the complete elimination of information.

Data destruction providers at the highest level are NAID AAA Certified (learn more about i-SIGMA here) while also following legal guidelines and strictures set by clients, industry guidelines and regulations, environmental regulations as well as federal, state and local law. 

The extra Mile in Data Destruction ESG Governance

• All Guardian services are based on written, enforced processes that adhere to NIST, DOD and i-SIGMA standards and guidelines.

• Our chain of custody process is stringent, signed at every hand-off with dual signatures and digitally recorded.

• We have a 10-year record of zero NAID AAA certification infractions including annual, unscheduled site inspections.

• Guardian data-handling employees must pass background checks and random drug testing.

• Employees are OSHA trained on safety processes including when and how to use company-supplied PPE to protect their health.

• Employees are provided with annual specific process training to ensure consistency and quality of services onsite and offsite.

• Guardian successfully spearheaded a change in New Jersey law to enable onsite hard drive shredding for NAID AAA Certified companies. As the last state to permit onsite hard drive data destruction, the new regulation increased the level of data security for data-bearing devices by reducing in-transit opportunities for theft and bad actors.

• As a veteran of data destruction best practices and experience with the Fortune 500, Founder and President Glenn Laga has held leadership roles in industry organizations such as NAID (now i-SIGMA) and is a frequent industry conference speaker for i-SIGMA, IAITAM and ASCDI. His goals are (1) to migrate and adapt privacy and compliance practices from traditional paper records to electronic fies and (2) to educate about the damaging risks and damages resulting from improper or negligent data.

The Guardian and ESG wrap-up

We view ESG as an evolving, adapting framework that demonstrates the opportunity to be better, do better and act better. We’re proud of our social, environmental and integrity-based business models. And we’re proud to be a leader in promoting care and responsibility while delivering the best in data destruction, IT packing & logistics and data center and enterprise services

Would you like to talk to us about how Guardian implements ESG initiatives? We want you to be confident that you’re working with the best. 

Read our full ESG statement here.

For any ESG questions or comments, please contact Guardian Data Destruction’s ESG Coordinator, Michelle Keegan.