Social responsibility
Ecotech Services believes a business should practice social responsibility. To this end we give a small amount of community support and use volunteers to assist individuals with their personal development or health issues.
Further information
- Social responsibility at Wikipedia
- Social investment at The Treasury (New Zealand Government)
Community support
Ecotech Services believes that as well as being ethical in terms of actual trading, businesses should give support to the community where possible.
We have given, or give ongoing support, to the following organisations:
- Enviroschools
- Molten Media Community Trust
- Starship Foundation (via the mobile phone recycling scheme which no longer operates)
- New Zealand Vintage Machinery Club
- Kiwis for Kiwi (via our Trade Me auctions)
- Kilmarnock Enterprises
- Creative Junk
- Freecycle on the Christchurch group
- Trees for Canterbury through their Carbon Calculator which links to a tree donation and community planting initiative
- Saint Vincent De Paul, Hornby – supply of computer spares
- St John Opportunity shop, Westport (now closed)
- City Mission – pre-recorded video tapes, free recycling service for e-waste
- Salvation Army, Sydenham store – donation of cables
- Christchurch Amateur Radio Club (NZART Branch 05) – donation of assorted electronic equipment.
- Foster Hope – refurbished laptops
- Ferrymead Post & Telegraph Society at Ferrymead Heritage Park – modems, old phones
- Mike Gilligan – supply of laptops etc to to be refurbished and given to those who cannot afford to buy them
- Repair Revolution – volunteering, supplying parts and equipment, and giving advice
- Supporting neurodivergent tamariki, their whãnau and educators
The support we provide to individual organisations is generally modest, but we aim to continue this support for the foreseeable future. However, factors such as economic fluctuations and our business growth ambitions may influence the extent of our commitment over time.
We also actively encourage volunteers to join us, which not only supports our operations but also benefits various sectors within our community.
Volunteers
At Ecotech Services, we welcome volunteers to help sort and dismantle e-waste materials that offer limited economic value but significant social and environmental benefits. However, due to capacity constraints, we can only accept a limited number of volunteers at any given time.
We actively support education, particularly in technical trades, and encourage those seeking work experience in the technology sector to apply. We also provide materials that require recycling to individuals and organisations as teaching or learning resources, with the dismantling process offering valuable hands-on experience.
In addition to volunteer opportunities, we offer both paid and unpaid internships for those interested in appliance and computer repair careers.
Many of our staff also contribute their time and skills to initiatives like repair cafés, further strengthening our commitment to community involvement.
Ideally, we would have paid staff to handle all dismantling, sorting, and testing tasks, but for this to be feasible, we believe mandatory e-waste recycling policies from central government are essential.
Contact us for more information.
Further information
- Volunteering New Zealand
- Volunteer information at Employment New Zealand (New Zealand Government)
- Health and safety for volunteers at Worksafe NZ (New Zealand Government)