Company News
FloQast Partners With Human-I-T for a More Sustainable Future and To Combat the Digital Divide
The last straw came about a year ago. I don’t remember what it was (or if it was a year ago), but one thing was clear: My trusty old FloQast MacBook was donezo, and I needed a new one.
More out of a desire not to bother anyone, I had been struggling for a few months before I could take it no longer. A battery that drained in an hour, a few oddly-persistent notifications that stumped even IT, and a speed that would have made an NFL nose tackle look like a sprinter just wouldn’t cut it anymore.
So I asked for a new one, and FloQast obliged. But as I was heading back to my “home office” (my apartment) with my fresh new MacBook, I started to wonder: “What happens to old laptops when their time has come?”
As luck would have it, FloQast’s Director of Information Technology, Jim Fazzone, let us in on what happens when it’s time to put ole John’s laptop out to pasture. But first, we need to understand just what kind of an issue safely disposing of this kind of equipment has on the environment.
E-waste isn’t something many people think of, but they really, really ought to. E-waste — Laptops, copiers, printers, and even fax machines (Note: There is no reason to be using a fax machine in 2022.) that need to be retired — accounts for 70% of toxic waste. Though they make up just 2% of landfills, simply recycling these once-powerful machines — and safely disposing of toxic items — is no longer sufficient. The sheer volume of equipment being disposed of means that recycling them all is impossible. In most cases, uplifting the no-longer-wanted items is much more useful than sending that Lenovo to kingdom come.
That’s where Human-I-T comes in. Headquartered in Bell Gardens, CA, just a hop, skip, and a two-hour trip on the 5 from FloQast HQ, Human-I-T is a nonprofit that offers access to equipment, digital skills training, tech support to underserved communities. In doing so, the nonprofit helps reduce the amount of E-waste created each year while combatting the digital divide that impacts dozens of millions of Americans without access to technology.
Recently, FloQast partnered with Human-I-T to help make FloQast a more sustainable company. FloQast donated 647lbs. of equipment that would have ended up in landfills to the nonprofit, which will repurpose the equipment to provide access to computers, free or low-cost internet, and digital literacy training for people in need.
“Reducing e-waste and ending the digital divide are incredibly important to me, and I couldn’t be happier that FloQast and Human-I-T have partnered up on this initiative,” Jim told me. “As a tech company experiencing a tremendous amount of growth, we constantly need to procure and replace obsolete equipment to meet our teams’ needs. Being able to donate that equipment to such an amazing organization, and knowing that it will ultimately end up in the hands of the people who need it most, was an absolute no-brainer. The FloQast IT team and I look forward to working with Human-I-T for many years to come!”
I’m thrilled FloQast is supporting such a great cause. With my personal MacBook Air on its last legs, I plan on donating it as well, instead of sending it to the great IT department in the sky.
If you’d like to donate, volunteer, or support Human-I-T, you can find more information here.
