The Electronics Sustainability Summit
Under the management of a non-profit certification organization, a well-established conference centering around reuse has undergone a change in ownership and adopted a new title. The rebranding outlines the conference’s renewed commitment to embracing a wider perspective on “sustainability,” especially pertaining to electronic devices.
On February 2nd, Sustainable Electronics Recycling International (SERI) made an announcement that they had recently taken ownership of the E-Reuse Conference (ERC), an event that focuses on repair. SERI has decided to rebrand the gathering as the Electronics Sustainability Summit.
Also stated on February 2nd, SERI’s executive director Corey Dehmey explained that the organization is, “very excited to add a conference to our growing list of SERI programs, all focused on the goal of driving electronics sustainability around the world.” SERI is the governing body responsible for overseeing the R2 certification standard.
Specific details regarding the financial aspects of the agreement were not made public.
ERC is Created
In 2010, a new organization emerged known as ERC, born out of the International Computer Refurbisher Summit. Over the years, it has become closely associated with the E-Scrap Conference, an event organized by Resource Recycling, Inc., the publishers of E-Scrap News. While the conference initially was anchored around the repair, reuse, and the remarketing of electronic devices, it has journeyed into a distinct sector of the electronics recovery business, much different from the operations of conventional e-scrap processors who focus on shredding and commodity recovery.
Sarah Kim, the leader of E-Reuse Services responsible for organizing ERC, expressed that the acquisition was a pivotal step in its ongoing development.
“I’m proud of what the E-Reuse Conference has grown into over the years. Especially with the success of the combined ERC/E-Scrap formats in 2021 and 2023, it became clear just how much the industry benefits from a conference where all the stakeholders can share, learn, and cross-pollinate in a collaborative environment. When I thought about the future of ERC and how it might continue to evolve, SERI felt like the perfect organization to take it to the next level. I couldn’t be more excited to work with SERI to build the Electronics Sustainability Summit with that shared vision in mind,” she said in a statement.
SERI’s objective for the summit is to emphasize sustainability from start to finish in the lifecycle of electronic devices, as highlighted by Dehmey. He emphasized that this event serves as a “platform for us to build upon to engage the entire electronics industry around the topic of sustainability.”
“We want to retain much of what has made ERC so strong in the past, including the networking, exhibition floor, a focus on mobile, and attendee influenced agenda, and then build from there,” Dehmey concluded. “So, many aspects of the Summit may feel familiar to those who have attended ERC in the past. But the path to making electronics sustainable flows through the entire electronics lifecycle, so we are building the Summit to create one event where all the stakeholders – regulators, manufacturers, the repair and returns communities, retailers, customers, as well as the reuse and recycling industry – can come together to collaborate, learn, and share.”
In Austin, Texas, the 2024 Electronics Sustainability Summit is set to take place from October 22nd to 24th.
