Driving the circular economy for storage.

Making the storage market more sustainable by developing and promoting standards, reporting, and best practices around circularity.

The Circular Drive Initiative (CDI) is a partnership of global leaders in digital storage, data centers, sustainability, and blockchain collaborating to reduce e-waste by enabling, driving, and promoting the secure reuse of storage hardware.

The current state of storage security:

“We shred everything.”

Top barriers to the circular economy

Data Leaks

Encryption

Trusts

Policies & Risks

Privacy

Legal Agreements

Security

The future state of storage security:

“We lead in circularity!”

Robotics for
Recovery

Encryption &
Sanitization

Trust
Assurance

Policies for Risk
Management

Value
Resale

Update Legal
Agreements

“I love the idea that these storage drives can be repurposed, with new data, wisdom, intelligence, and cleverness to better the human condition. These renewed drives will help us remember the future. Storage reuse effectively demonstrates the Cradle to Cradle Circular Technosphere concept and I believe it can be a leading example in the ICT industry.”

William McDonough, Chief Executive, McDonough Innovation

Our Path: RetainReuseRecover

Retain

Regen to keep drives in service

Reuse

Secure data erasure and sanitization

Recover

Disassembly, recovery of rare earth materials, and then recycling

Mobilizing the Industry to CooperateInnovateEducateMobilize

Retain

  • Hyperscalers
  • Computer Brands
  • OEMs
  • ITADs
  • Recovery Partners

Best Practices

  • Sanitization
  • GHG Reduction
  • Circulatory Processes

Alliances

  • IEEE SISWG
  • OCP Security, Storage, and Sustainability
  • SNIA
  • SERI
  • International Data Sanitization Consortium

Standards

  • Data Security
  • Cryptography
  • Sanitization
  • Data Privacy & Protection

Reporting

  • GHG Reduction
  • Landfill Diversion
  • Value Recovery
  • Resource Efficiency

Verification

  • Security
  • Erasure
  • Companies
  • Grading

SecurityCryptographySanitizationVerification

IEEE 2883 Purge
Media Sanitization

IEEE 2883
Verification

ISO/IEC 27040
Certificate of Sanitization

Hardware roots of trust
Firmware audits
Forensic Analysis

Realizing the Impact: GHG ReductionLandfill DiversionValue Recovery

Environmental

  • Up to 40% [1] reduction in embodied carbon
  • Reuse 275x [2] more carbon impact vs recycling

[2] Jin, H., Frost, K., Sousa, I., Ghaderi, H., Bevan, A., Zakotnik, M. and Handwerker, C., 2020. Life cycle assessment of emerging technologies on value recovery from hard disk drives. Resources, Conservation and Recycling, 157, p.104781.

Economic

  • Up to 90% of drives are shredded at the end of first use

Circular Drive Initiative. Better Together.

Join the Circular Drive Initiative today and be a part of a collaborative effort to enhance Resource Efficiency, achieve Target Net Zero through Embodied Carbon Reduction, ensure trust in Data Sanitization, and maximize Value Recovery. Whether you’re an individual or represent an organization as a Steward Member or Member, your contribution is crucial. Become a key player in driving sustainable change. Better Together!