From 1 July 2026, thousands more Australian businesses enter mandatory climate reporting. Group 2 entities (those meeting at least two of three criteria: $200 million or more in revenue, $500 million or more in gross assets, or 250 or more employees) must now produce annual sustainability disclosures under AASB S2, Australia’s adaptation of the global ISSB climate standards. The first reports will be due in late 2027.
For Group 1 businesses that started reporting in FY2025, this is already year two. That matters because Scope 3 emissions become mandatory from the second reporting period. No more deferrals.
That’s where your IT department comes in.
Where e-waste sits in Scope 3
Scope 3 covers indirect emissions across your value chain. Category 5, “waste generated in operations,” captures what happens when you retire a laptop, a server rack, or a network switch. If you can’t tell an auditor where that equipment went, how it was processed, or what material was recovered rather than landfilled, you have a quantification problem. In a mandatory disclosure regime, that’s a formal data quality issue, not a rounding error.
The numbers are not trivial. The Global E-waste Monitor 2024 put global e-waste generation at 62 million tonnes in 2022, with Australia contributing roughly 500,000 tonnes annually. For a mid-size business refreshing 300 devices a year, the difference between documented recovery and undocumented disposal can shift a Scope 3 line item by several tonnes of CO2e. When your auditor asks how you calculated that figure, you need a source document, not a memory of which recycler you called last year.
Victorian businesses have an additional layer of context here. The Victorian e-waste landfill ban has applied since 1 July 2019. Non-compliant disposal is not just a reporting gap; it is an illegal disposal. Your Scope 3 figure and your legal compliance depend on the same thing: documented, standard-aligned ITAD.
Documentation is the new minimum
Under AASB S2, Scope 3 disclosures require companies to identify material emissions categories, use reasonable estimation methodologies, and disclose data quality limitations. Auditors are already asking about methodology. The answer “we used a recycler” won’t satisfy a limited assurance engagement.
What does: a chain-of-custody record from an ITAD provider that captures device types, quantities, material weights, processing methods, and recovery rates. That data feeds directly into your Scope 3 calculation and provides a documented basis for your disclosure.
At EWV, every collection generates documentation aligned with AS/NZS 5377 and ISO 14001. Our CircularTrack reporting gives clients CO2e figures per collection, broken down by device category. For businesses entering AASB S2 compliance in FY2027, that reporting is the primary source material for your Scope 3 IT disposal line, not a bonus feature.
Data security still applies
AASB S2 does not change your obligations under the Australian Privacy Act or APP 11. Any device being retired still needs its storage media handled correctly before it leaves your premises. A Scope 3 reporting push that moves equipment out quickly without proper data destruction trades one compliance problem for another.
EWV’s data destruction process follows NIST 800-88 Rev. 2. We issue device-level certificates for every job. Our processes are aligned with ISO 27001, with full certification on the roadmap. One collection, one documented process, with output for both your sustainability report and your data security audit trail.
What to do now
If your business is entering Group 2 and you have not mapped Scope 3 categories yet, IT asset disposal is one of the easiest to address. You own the process.
Before your next hardware refresh, confirm your ITAD provider can supply:
- Asset-level records covering device type, quantity, and weight
- Material recovery breakdowns by category
- CO2e figures per collection
- NIST 800-88 compliant data destruction certificates
If they cannot, you want to know that before your first sustainability report is due.
Contact EWV before your next equipment refresh. We will make sure your e-waste recycling and IT disposal process produces the documentation your sustainability team and your auditors actually need.