ABOUT PONYUP FOR GOOD

 

What is PonyUp for Good?

PonyUp for Good is a social enterprise. Our mission is to provide a simple process for socially minded companies to turn their decommissioned technology into charitable currency. In conjunction with our operations partners, we collect donated, decommissioned devices from organisations just like yours; provide a secure data cleansing and de-badging service and re-market the second-hand technology. PonyUp has a ‘reuse first’ policy, which means  technology can have up to seven years more life and reduces the amount of e-waste going to our landfills.

PonyUp then donates 50% of the profits from the re-marketing of the technology, to our charity impact partner, SecondBite, Australia's fresh food rescue superheroes.

Some of the by-product benefits of this process include, the reduction of e-waste to landfill, the clearing of IT storage rooms across Australia, the provision of much required second hand technology to those not in a position to afford it new - and a warm fuzzy feeling for all those who have PoniedUp for Good!

What is your objective?

Our goal is to rescue 1/2 million kilos of technology and use its residual value to provide 1 million meals via SecondBite.

What have you achieved so far?

Through our amazing clients and via our wonderful partnership with our operations teams we have delivered some incredible environmental and social outcomes. Click here for the latest tally!  

What does PonyUp mean?

Transitive verb. To pay for or contribute. Lets use it in a sentence: 'Hey guys, it’s time to PonyUp for the bill'.

Who's the dude on the horse?

We think this is the most awesome image ever! We found it on Twitter. His name is Jus Reign and he's a comedian from Toronto, Canada, posing atop a pony in Iceland. We messaged him and explained our project and he very kindly allowed us to use it. We think he's a legend! Check him out here: Jus Reign https://www.youtube.com/user/JusReign

Our Story

We, (Mardi & Cat) have known each other since 1994, which makes us feel kinda old when you put it that way. Thankfully, on a trek to New York a few years ago we discovered the fountain of youth in the bottom of a round of Long Island Ice Teas, which has given us eternal enigma status. We'd discussed working together for years, knowing there would be a formidable force at play, however our stars just never aligned...until one sunny day in November 2015!. We both wanted to do something that we would be innately proud of. So, we sat down and wrote a binary list of what this 'something' would look like for each of us. There were no surprises, when we shared our lists - both of us wanted to do something that could make a positive and meaningful impact on the world. One adamant point, which we both shared, was that we wanted to build a strong social platform that allowed us to give back philanthropically - So we white-boarded the hell out of our ideas for weeks and came up with PonyUp for Good - An idea, which surprised us both, with its multiple tentacles of goodness in the areas of sustainability, social & community impact & team engagement.

What is a social enterprise?

Social enterprises are businesses who trade specifically to tackle social problems, such as improving communities, people's lives, health or the environment. They make money from selling goods or services in the open market like any ordinary business, but they funnel a percentage of their profits into charitable programs of work, which address issues within the community or abroad. So, when they profit, society profits... And...no we still have no idea how to tackle the rife social problem of those who wear Crocs - this seems to be some sort of sorcery. If anyone has any ideas, please...write to us!

Why didn’t you set yourself up as a not-for-profit?

A social enterprise business model was the obvious choice for us when thinking about the level of impact we want to have. Where not-for-profits generally rely on the donations of others, we wanted to take matters into our own hands and set up a business model, which is sustainable and scalable. We found, for this particular mission, the not-for-profit model lacked some of the entrepreneurial spirit and flexibility we needed, which a social model could provide.

So, how big an issue is e-waste?

E-waste is growing up to three times faster than general municipal waste across Australia. It covers a range of items including televisions, desktops, laptops, printers and mobile phones. Globally the amount making its way to landfill is increasing each year and is expected to pass 50 million tonnes this year. Electronic waste is responsible for 70% of the toxic chemicals found in our landfills and waterways, such as lead, cadmium and mercury. So yup, we’d say it’s a super significant problem.

What about food waste?

The Australian Government estimates food waste, costs the Australian economy $20 billion each year. Currently, 5 million tonnes of food ends up as landfill, that’s enough to fill 8,400 Olympic sized swimming pools. When organic waste is dumped in landfill, it undergoes anaerobic decomposition (because of the lack of oxygen) and generates methane, which is 25 times more potent a greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide.

The impact of food waste also includes the energy, fuel and water used to grow food that is then thrown away. Combine that with over $2 Million Australians going hungry every day while perfectly good food rots in landfill and you’ll start to get a picture of where we could be doing better together

I think it’s an awesome idea, but we don't have any tech. How else can I get involved?

We'd love you to join our social media community and share our outcomes with your own community to get more companies PonyingUp for Good. To keep up to date with all our news, follow us on Facebook or Instagram, or feel free to connect with Cat or Mardi directly on LinkedIn. For a real life in person meeting, click here and let’s organise a time to meet up!

 

ABOUT OUR CHARITY PARTNER

What does SecondBite do?

SecondBite is Australia's biggest fresh food rescue charity, redistributing fresh surplus food donated by farmers, wholesalers, markets, supermarkets, caterers and events to more than 1400 community food programs on the frontline of food poverty around Australia. They started more than ten years ago and now have operations in every state and territory of Australia.

Last year alone, SecondBite rescued 19.4 million kilograms of nutritious food. That's 38 million healthy meals for vulnerable people, including homeless, women and families in crisis centres, youth at risk, indigenous communities, asylum seekers and new arrivals to Australia.

Why food rescue?

We sat down and stared at our navels for a while to reflect upon what was important to us. The conclusion we reached; we are passionate about waste reduction and a better use of resources. SecondBite mirror those values perfectly as they rescue the precious resource of fresh produce, which has taken, water, soil, transport, packaging and love to make it to the supermarket where it resides. To send this to landfill without fulfilling its destiny, while two million Australians go hungry makes no sense to us. The idea of rescuing tech from landfill and giving it a new life - then using the proceeds to rescue quality fresh food and give it a new life, makes our hearts sing -  and so we knew it was the right decision.

How can you help?

Well that's easy! You can donate your company's decommissioned technology, keep it out of landfill and turn it into fresh meals If you are not the most appropriate person within your company, feel free to introduce us to the right mover & shaker. We will happily send you an information pack to get that conversation started. Just drop us an email, you can reach us via the contact us page.  

I'd like to donate fresh surplus food to SecondBite!

PonyUp can't take your surplus produce, but SecondBite certainly can and they would love to hear from you!

JOINING THE PONYUP STABLE

So, why should you PonyUp for Good?

The great thing about PonyUp is our multiple tentacles of goodness in environmental and social outcomes and team engagement, combined with the good business sense of managing your end of life IT in a secure, highly accredited and cost effective way. Benefits include:

Environmental

  • Reducing toxic chemicals from our e-waste ending up in Australia’s landfills and waterways

  • Extending the lifespan of your retired technology, making the most out of the resource investment, which goes into making each device

  • Technology, which cannot be reused, is securely and environmentally recycled by our operational partners to ensure diversion from landfill and the precious materials contained in them go back to making new products

Social

  • Feeding people across Australia in real need of support, using just your retired technology - WINNING!

  • Providing low cost technology for people across Australia and in emerging global economies, who may not be able to afford to buy it new

Business & Budgetary

  • Complete and accurate records of the outcome of your end of life IT by serial number is kept on record. (Did you know there are new obligations for businesses on data security with effect from February 2018 which make it more important than ever to keep accurate records of your data destruction. Read more about your obligations here - https://www.oaic.gov.au/engage-with-us/consultations/notifiable-data-breaches/)

  • Secure asset de-badging and data cleansing of hard drives using the Blancco or Aitken systems ensuring Department of Defense standards with highly competitive pricing

  • Reduce IT labour costs for asset cleaning, register development and data security

  • The development of complete asset register can reduce unnecessary leasing fees and removal from financial records

  • Secure processing of e-waste recycling ensuring your equipment doesn’t end up in the wrong hands

Brand & Team Engagement

  • Build a great brand story for your end of life technology

  • Ensure your end of life technology is handled by an ISO 14001, AS/NZS 5377 accredited supplier

  • Great metrics & outcome reporting to share with your employees, customers and stakeholders

  • Get your team on board and build engagement with your employees

  • Improve employee perceptions and satisfaction

Check out the clients already in the PonyUp stable

What devices are you collecting?

PonyUp for Good can handle all of your weird and wonderful technology for reuse or recycle!

Our primary focus is facilitating the reuse of decommissioned technology 2-5 years old. However, we do collect other redundant tech too and make sure it has the most environmental outcome. If we are unable to reuse it, our wonderful operational partners will recycle all of its components.

The meat & three veg of our everyday collection list includes: desktops, laptops, tablets, monitors, mobile phones, servers, printers, faxes, desktop telephones, peripherals (cords, mice, keyboards) and computer parts - But to be honest, we have collected technology we didn’t even know existed, so contact us if you are unsure.

How will you collect it?

There are a number of options, we can place a bin, or many bins on site for you to fill up and call us to collect when it’s full, or we can send a team out to remove your whole overloaded IT room so you can free up space for that pool table you’ve been hankering after.

Contact us, to talk further about the services and pricing we can offer.

Can you help out with an office move?

Absolutely, office moves or refurbs are often a catalyst for a clear out. We can drop bins on site or be a part of the clear out program by sending a team on site to remove everything from the plug back.

What reporting will I get?

Ah - good question! This is one of PonyUp’s areas of specialty, we love using numbers and data to help you communicate your environmental and community impact to your employees and stakeholders.

Our out of the box, free, project reporting includes;

  1. Weight of technology diverted from landfill

  2. Percentage of technology able to be reused

  3. Number of fresh meals meals provided

We can chat to you about any additional requirements you may have and work with your team to talk about how we can contribute to your unique strategic objectives in waste avoidance, CO2 reduction and community and employee engagement.

I’d like some help to communicate my outcomes.

Well, you are in luck. With over 30 years of combined marketing and internal communications experience, PonyUp understand the importance of closing the loop on your Sustainability & CSR reporting and communications. We can work with your internal and external communications/PR teams, to build out a plan, which will hit all the right notes for your various audiences.

What about data security?

At PonyUp for Good, we place a heavy focus on your privacy and data security. Our ‘Full Service’ disposal ensures that any data on disposed assets is irreversibly destroyed.

Blancco

Our operational partners offer the Blancco data erasure system, which meets the strictest requirements including US Department of Defence standards and all donated computers and hard drives will have a certificate of data destruction issued.

Blancco has been tested, certified, approved or recommended by 18 national and international governing bodies. No other security firm can boast this level of compliance with the most rigorous requirements set by government agencies, legal authorities and independent testing laboratories.

Any equipment, which does does not successfully undertake the Blancco wiping process will be dismantled and recycled. Assets with no refurbishment potential will also be physically destroyed and recycled ensuring no data is able to be retrieved from them.

Aitken

PonyUp’s operations partner also offer Aiken Workbench software for data sanitisation. Aiken Workbench generates a certificate containing the serial number and model of the device, the erase method used and the erasure timestamp. This signature is stored as an encrypted object in the MySQL database and cannot be meaningfully altered by other means.

Aiken meets the Australian Government standards and US Department of Commerce National Institute for Standards and Technology (NIST) . Aiken Workbench also carries Adisa security certification. 

Any drive, which does not successfully pass data sanitisation will be destroyed and a certificate of destruction provided.

We would be more than happy to provide your IT team with a demonstration.

Why is it better to re-use technology rather than recycle it?

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) have a waste hierarchy AVOID > REDUCE > REUSE > RECYCLE. By passing this equipment on quickly for reuse, you will reduce the need to manufacture new electronic devices therefore saving precious natural resources, as well as providing second hand technology to those not in a position to afford it new.

Will it cost anything?

PonyUp aims to be a low cost exercise for our clients. However, there are some standard collection fees and services, which attract fees. We can work with you to develop the most cost effective service for your business, whilst ensuring you are disposing of your tech in an environmental and timely manner. Contact us, to talk further about the services and pricing we can offer.

Can we remove the hard drives from our computers before donating them?

Sadly, it is common practice with many businesses to pull out the hard drives and shred them. This means the computers often cannot be reused and reach their full lifespan potential and materials used in manufacturing are not recycled and those precious resources are wasted.

The environmental alternative is to use the Blancco data destruction system ensuring your hard drives are erased to Department of Defense standards. Blancco has been tested, certified, approved or recommended by 18 national and international governing bodies. No other security firm can boast this level of compliance with the most rigorous requirements set by government agencies, legal authorities and independent testing laboratories. We would be more than happy to provide your IT team with a demonstration.

I heard along the grapevine the Government is looking to ban e-waste from landfill - is that true?

Yes, the Victorian Government committed to banning e-waste from landfill in Victoria in 2019. South Australia has had a full e-waste ban in place since 2013 and with Victoria following suit, other Government bodies across Australia are looking to implement it moving forward.

PonyUp can work with you to get an easy, environmental strategy in place, which gives back to your community at the same time.

Where will the devices be re-marketed?

Refurbished products are re-marketed by our experienced operational partners, either through factory outlets, on line market places, eBay or other E-commerce sites; or through their verified and accredited dealer network across the globe.

Much of the technology will make its way to developing countries and support growth, providing much needed technology to those that cannot afford it new and in emerging economies.

What will you do if you cannot re-market donated technology?

Not all old technology has a resale value. This can depend on market demand, age & quality. Should you donate a device, which turns out not to be resale friendly, our next mission will be to ethically recycle the device, so that the parts and precious metals can be broken down locally and reused and turned into your Nanna's new robotic hip. Our recycling partners are AS/NZS 5377, ISO 9001 & 14001 certified.

Are you interested in broken smartphones or smartphones with cracked screens?

Yes indeedy, we are interested in smartphones & tablets which don't power up, have buttons missing or even with cracked screens. They can be refurbished, broken down for parts or recycled.

Do you need computer power cords?

Ideally yes please, but don’t worry if you are missing some, the great teams within our operational partners, will try and match it up with a suitable power supply.  

I STILL HAVE BURNING QUESTIONS AND WOULD LOVE TO CHAT TO YOU

Any unanswered questions? Please feel free to contact us if you have any further questions. Cat and Mardi love a chin wag, so pick up the phone and give us a call.