Buenos Aires Technologists Bring Life to Old Computers in Support of Their Community

Across the firm, we are combining our business and philanthropic expertise to cultivate thriving communities. Within our Buenos Aires Technology Center, employees are bringing new life to old computers and donating them locally.

Toxic byproducts of improperly disposed electronic waste may jeopardize the health of communities and create negative consequences for people and the environment. There is an excess of damaging, mismanaged electronic waste in the world. 

But, while there is an excess of electronic waste globally, there are many places—Argentina, for example—where people lack access to technology. Technologists at J.P. Morgan are working to address both problems.

Motivated to safely reduce the health and environmental risks of electronic waste and simultaneously provide resources to those in need, employees came together to find new homes for the firm’s bank’s decommissioned technology equipment. 

Various teams united to refurbish desktop computers that were no longer in use. Once the desktop computers were restored to a suitable condition and hard drives were removed for security purposes, employees needed to find a way to make the devices functional for potential recipients even though they no longer had working operating systems.  

The Technology Center soon found a solution through a local nonprofit, Fundación Equidad, that transforms and refurbishes used equipment into donatable computers for schools and organizations across Argentina. Fundación Equidad partnered with the firm to restore the usability of these computers with new operating systems and distribute them to communities in need. J.P. Morgan’s work with Fundación Equidad has expanded to become part of an ongoing volunteer program within the firm’s Buenos Aires Technology Center. 

In addition to a donation from the firm, employees also organized an internal electronic refurbishing workshop for laptops, where J.P. Morgan volunteers cleaned the equipment, replaced existing hard drives, and installed and tested new operating systems for each computer.

In total, the Buenos Aires team plans to donate more than 500 computers to nonprofits this year. In doing so, the Technology Center has helped to mitigate the health and environmental impacts of electronic waste and has provided nearby members of low-income communities with more opportunities for digital access.

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