The Blancco Technology Group, a company that provides data erasure services to accelerate the circular economy, has announced a collaboration with the Turing Trust, an Edinburgh-based charity that provides IT resources and training to schools in sub-Saharan Africa.

Through the collaboration, Blancco will provide free licenses of its drive-eraser software, which will enable the charity to securely refurbish donated IT equipment—such as desktops, laptops, smart phones, and tablets—that is distributed to schools to improve children’s access to computer technology and digital skills training. According to the Turing Trust, in 2020 it refurbished 45 tons of PCs—equivalent to 954 tons in carbon savings—an environmental impact that offset the embodied energy required to power 233 UK homes for a year. The Turing Trust operates its largest project in Malawi, but also has provided computers to children in Liberia, South Sudan, Kenya, Ghana, and Gambia, and assisted Ukrainian refugees in the UK. To date, Blancco has securely erased more than 2,500 donated devices for the organization.

“Each year organizations unnecessarily physically destroy IT equipment and devices that could be reused, resold, or recycled to engage with the circular economy following appropriate data sanitization best practices,” said Blancco chief financial officer Adam Moloney. “At a time when there is a call for greater environmental stewardship, current attitudes towards device management are simply unsustainable. We’re very proud to be working with the Turing Trust to address issues of social and digital inclusion among school children in Africa. We firmly believe that a student’s education and development should not be impaired by their access to technology. Initiatives like this ensure we can collectively reduce the impact on our planet and put devices in the hands of those communities that need them most while following security best practices.”

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