According to the World Health Organization, every year millions of electrical and electronic devices are discarded as they break or become obsolete. Electronic waste, or e-waste, is now the fastest growing solid waste stream in the world, increasing three times faster than the world’s population—and it’s posing a real threat to the environment and human health.
Schwab, like most companies, deals with its own amount of e-waste. Continual updates are made to Schwab’s technology to meet the needs of our clients. However, Schwab Technology Services (STS) keeps electronic devices out of landfills by responsibly recycling decommissioned equipment. And it helps employees do the same by holding electronics recycling events where employees can bring in old personal devices that Schwab will recycle for them. Last year, 16,048 pounds of e-waste were diverted from landfills via these employee recycling events.
While recycling is excellent, reusing is even better. In 2019, STS teamed up with Schwab Employees 4 the Environment (E4E), an employee interest group, with an idea. What if the laptop and desktop computers that were decommissioned by Schwab were refurbished and donated?
They worked with a vendor to wipe the gently used Schwab devices, restore them to default settings, and load them with fully licensed operating systems and Windows software. Before shipping them off to various non-profits selected by employees, they tested the computers and then backed them with a one-year warranty and free support. And it turns out, it was a great idea.
“We’re thrilled to have the ability to refurbish and reuse hundreds of Schwab devices each year, extending the useful lives of these computers,” explains Amber Exum, Schwab’s national E4E chair. “Just because they aren’t fast enough for the brokers on our front lines, doesn’t mean they aren’t perfectly good devices.”
Since the donation program started, 2,375 computers have been matched to 62 worthy non-profits that needed them worldwide. One of those non-profits is Camp Carefree.
Camp Carefree
When you ask Brad Bailey, a former Camp Carefree camper and counselor, about his brother, Matthew, he lights up. He talks about how as kids growing up in Durham, North Carolina they watched professional wrestling and read comic books together. “It was awesome having a younger brother,” says Brad who is older by four years. “I wanted to do whatever he wanted to do.”
It’s not how most older siblings talk about pesky younger brothers. But Brad was always protective of Matthew, who was born with spina bifida, and uses a wheelchair. When his friends commented on how hard it must be to have a brother with a disability, Brad always shrugged them off, and responded with, “It’s the only thing I’ve ever known.”
In 1989, Brad’s mom found Camp Carefree, a free summer camp designed for kids affected by chronic illnesses and disabilities, located in nearby Stokesdale, North Carolina. Matthew wasn’t old enough to attend yet, but there was a week dedicated to siblings, so she signed Brad up.
“I got out there and I had the time of my life,” he explains.
Camp Carefree offers 72-acres of rolling hills where kids can swim, play pool, go horseback riding, do arts and crafts, and experience the other thrills of camp in an adaptive atmosphere away from hospitals and the other stressors that are part of their daily life.
When his brother was finally old enough to attend, Brad had transitioned to being a counselor, which encompasses being paired up with a disabled or ill camper. “There was no question I was getting paired with my brother,” explains Brad. “Everybody knows the Bailey brothers, and we were paired up for every year from then on.”
The Bailey brothers experienced the joys of camp together for five summers. It was there that Matthew, who was never much of an outdoorsman, had the thrill of catching his first fish. It’s also where Brad learned how to independently take care of Matthew, and where Matthew also gained more of his own independence.
And even now as adults, Camp Carefree remains an important part of their lives. For the past 12 years, Brad and Matthew have made a new tradition of going to Camp Carefree for alumni weekend, the last weekend of summer, where they continue to make memories. It was during one of these weekends that Matthew shocked his brother, by picking up a pool stick and demonstrating some surprisingly good billiard skills.
Camp has been life-changing for the Bailey brothers, and so in 2021 Brad took his commitment to Camp Carefree a step further by joining the board. “The older I’ve gotten, the more passion I have to support the camp and make sure it has what it needs.”
Turning potential e-waste into summer fun
One thing Camp Carefree needs is to modernize its processes and communications. It takes a lot to organize campers, staff, activities, donations, and everything else.
So when Brad, a Schwab employee of 14 years, saw that Schwab was giving away refurbished computers to non-profits, he thought of Camp Carefree right away, and nominated the organization. Camp Carefree received five computers which are being used for everything from helping counselors plan cabin sleeping arrangements more efficiently, to communicating across camp facilities via email instead of long golf cart trips.
“I just think these machines will help us become more efficient, effective and connected across camp,” explains Brad.
Less administration time means more time for fun. And that’s what camp is all about after all.
One good deed leads to another
The computer donation program started out as a simple act of reducing e-waste for the benefit for the Earth, but it’s true that there’s often a compounding effect with good deeds.
“E4E is passionate about helping Schwab advance its environmental sustainability goals with these e-waste programs,” explains Amber, referring to the recycling and refurbishing programs. “It’s wonderful that doing so also provides us with a unique opportunity to positively impact our local communities.”
The computers are helping a new generation of kids impacted by chronic disease and illnesses have amazing summers at Camp Carefree just like the Bailey brothers. And they are helping many other non-profits expand their missions as well.
And interest in helping the Earth and our communities is growing. E4E is an expanding employee interest group with over 800 Schwab employees coming together to promote and celebrate environmental responsibility. In 2024 they are focused on advancing the goal of sustainability in new ways, including the creation of a virtual chapter to help increase engagement and membership. And they’re looking for volunteers to help expand their capabilities within existing chapter locations and in new locations, like Schwab’s Omaha campus, for a greener and more sustainable world for us all.