Started in 2015, eReuse.org has spent about a decade promoting best practices for data sanitization and traceability by advancing the digitalization of the circular economy for digital devices, working with organizations across the globe. To implement these best practices and standards, eReuse.org proposes an open-source stack for ITADs, Refurbishers, and recyclers.
The software is developed and maintained by the respective organizations, and you will find it in their repositories.
- The Workbench creates a hardware snapshot of the device and its components, including a unique global ID. If the device is a computer, Workbench performs tests and benchmarks on components and erases hard drives, including these results in the report.
- Workbench can upload reports to DeviceHub. Devicehub is a device inventory service, also known as an IT Asset Management System (ITAMS), focused on maximizing device lifespans and reusing them. It is offered as a cloud service for organizations to manage, track, and exchange their devices.
- The Global Registry of Devices (GRD) receives optional non-private metadata about devices from ITAMS like Devicehub instances. It is an auditable (and replicable) semi-public online log that maintains a global list of traceability information about devices, in the form of simple digital product passports, to assist in cases of leakage or similar issues, and to generate inputs for indicators that measure circularity.
In the following sections, we detail the two main software elements.
Workbench
The Workbench (workbench-script) is a toolset that assists in registering, refurbishing, and tracking devices. It captures hardware characteristics (such as device serial numbers) and those of devices’ components, rates devices, and can securely delete data. With its self-booting start-up, you don’t have to worry about which operating system is installed. Just boot your device over the network using the PXE Server, test and benchmark your system hardware, capture characteristics for rating, and record the serial number for traceability and reporting. It processes detailed hardware information at the component level. This result is then uploaded to an inventory service instance (DeviceHub), described next.
This software executes on a computer and, without human interaction, automatically executes the following tools:
- Hardware discovery. Obtains metadata from the computer and its components, including ways of identifying a device even if minor components are replaced during its lifetime.
- Data erasure. Deletes private information from data storage units by applying standardized erasure methods that users can parametrize (now via external tools).
- Benchmarking. Rates the capacity of the computer and its components in order to value them (deprecated).
- Testing. Performs quality tests to guarantee the capacity of the machine to operate correctly and without failure (deprecated).
See Workbench-script in Github
DeviceHub
An inventory service or Device Asset Management System, offered as a web app and focused on efficiently managing the circular life-cycle of devices –reusing and recycling. The main objectives are:
- To offer a common IT Asset Management system for donors, receivers, and IT professionals so they can manage devices and exchange them. This is reusing—and ultimately recycling.
- To automatically recollect, analyse, process, and share (controlling privacy) metadata about devices with other tools of the eReuse ecosystem to guarantee traceability and provide inputs for the indicators that measure circularity.
DeviceHub retrieves device information from Workbench reports and other integrated systems, and manages their end-to-end workflow and logistics, including B2B and B2C transfers, and environmental impact reporting. Devices are registered using Workbench. DeviceHub instances can be federated and autonomous (one instance per organization) and interact with external systems (such as other DeviceHub instances) to manage processes for reusing and recycling, including disposal and external reuse. The main characteristics of Devicehub are:
- Device management: Devicehub manages the asset identification process and the lifecycle of the organization’s devices, as well as workflows (donation, refurbishment, B2B and B2C transfers) and external devices over which the organization has control.
- Reports: This feature generates automatic personalized reports and analytics, ensuring compliance and detecting critical aspects, such as device loss, device and ID duplication, etc. Reports can be in PDF or spreadsheet format.
- Certifications: Saves, manages, and exports certificates, such as test results and hard drive deletions, to support audits and present them to end users.
- Logistics, traceability, and tracking: manages the transportation of devices by mapping their coordinates to places and assigning transporters and destinations.
- Verifiability: Third-party registration of operations in the public registry for transparency, verifiability, and resolvability (lookup) of device information.
- Environmental impact report: It can generate a lifespan environmental impact report, including first use and second-hand reuse. hours.
- Device rate and selling price (under development): ratedevices based on Workbench’s benchmarking and testing reports, with performance, functionality, and aesthetics considered. Finally, it suggests a parametrizable range of prices.
The Global Registry of Devices (GRD) (Experimental, under development)
The Global Registry of Devices is an auditable, verifiable online log that maintains a global list of traceability information for devices, so it can assist in cases of leakage or similar issues. The Registry is replicated, uses open data, and is designed for external users who want to report traceability information. It is based on and works as a distributed ledger. The Registry provides a REST API that allows ITAMS, such as DeviceHub instances, to report on device life cycles, environmental responsibilities for organizations, etc. It collects from each device throughout its lifespan.
Legacy
Workbench Android App
An Android smartphone and tablet app with two functionalities.
- Obtain metadata from devices that are not computers, such as peripherals or electrical appliances, by scanning their barcodes and taking photos.
- Link devices to tags generated by the tools, such as QR codes and NFC chips.