The Turing Trust

Managing asset disposal is a bit of a headache for most organisations – it’s costly, time consuming and requires stringent protocols to ensure existing data is destroyed according to government standards. Thirteen Group wanted an easy way to do this, whilst supporting their environmental and social impact goals. 

Enter the Turing Trust, who provide the following services for free: accredited data destruction to the British HMG InfoSec and ISO Standards, social impact by reusing PCs in schools, and environmental impact as their activities offset carbon emissions. 

Reusing IT equipment is a step up the waste hierarchy – it’s a better waste management method than recycling, as it offsets the CO2 emissions associated with prematurely recycling functional ICT equipment. So, we wanted to set up a process that would help our clients to benefit from this, by donating their old IT equipment to the Turing Trust, in a simple and easy way. 

The Turing Trust accepts most working ICT equipment ranging from desktops, laptops, tablets and smartphones all the way to power cables, headphones and mice. Find a full list of ICT equipment the charity can use.

We’ve made it an easy process for Thirteen and our other customers to partner with the Trust; equipment can be sent to boxxe in York, directly to the Trust’s workshop in Edinburgh, or collected UK-wide from any offices.

It’s all about making tech human across a product’s lifecycle, from its initial integration into a company to its last. As a result of this partnership, Thirteen have successfully reduced their disposal costs whilst making an environmental and social impact. Their donation of 54 PCs allowed the Turing Trust to supply 3 schools with PCs in Malawi, enabling an additional 1,154 Malawian students to learn vital IT skills.

Through this donation Thirteen have offset 31 tonnes of CO2 emissions – the equivalent to planting 78 trees, or offsetting the annual carbon footprint of 3 people in the UK. And because of the Trust’s refurbishment process and long-term maintenance services they are able to significantly extend the lifetime of donated PCs, saving 80% on their previous recycling costs.