CUSTOMER STORIES: BRE Group

BRE Group & Stone Group Work Together to Help The Environment

BRE is a world leading, multidisciplinary, building science centre with a mission to improve buildings and infrastructure, through research and knowledge generation. The group specializes in all kinds of building expertise including Building Information Management, Security, Resilience in a changing world and developing sustainability standards. The UK head office in Watford employs over 400 staff and focuses on building and construction research, in particular fire safety and pressure testing. This innovative research results in the development of products, services and standards that are used across the world. Will Adamson is the IT Project Manager/Front Office Manager and he and his team are responsible for managing all the IT projects across the site and the IT service desk. He has been with the company for two years and his predecessor had employed Stone Group to look after BRE’s IT recycling.

“I inherited the contract with Stone Group,” said Will. “After working with them for a short time I was confident that it was the best company for the job and was more than happy to continue the relationship.”

Stone 360® Mobile App Has Made Life Easier

BRE is frequently looking to upgrade its IT which means that Stone Group collect from Watford around every three months. The recycling collection includes desktops, laptops, servers, hard-drives, monitors, monitor stands, keyboards and other ancillaries.

Will said: “Listing all the old equipment for collection would take a lot of time as I had to take photos of the equipment and then upload the photos to my desktop, attach them to a form, and email to Stone. Now, however, their fabulous new app has totally revolutionised the job and literally saves hours of my time.” Stone 360® is a mobile app that has been developed by Stone Group to allow organisations to take control of their e-waste with a few simple clicks and, as Will has discovered, it makes listing materials to be collected a lot easier. “Using Stone 360® means I can just walk around the site, take photographs of kit to be collected and it instantly uploads onto the app,” explains Will.

“I can compile my list at the same time as doing other jobs, which means I am not tied to my desk doing paperwork. It really is one of the best things Stone has introduced and it has made my
job so much easier. What was once a real chore is something I barely even have to think about.” Stone 360® is available to download from App Store and Google Play and helps businesses manage their end of-life tech, reach sustainability goals and play a part in combatting the growing e-waste crisis. Not only does it make recycling your redundant IT easy, Stone also offer a boosted rebate to buy new or refurbished devices from Stone. We work with the National Forest and have planted over 1,000 trees so far and organisations can see their contribution with a virtual woodland on the app. BRE Group has already started with 2 trees in their forest, every 1000 points earnt is equal to 1 tree. The app provides a win-win for everyone.

A Trusted Recycling Partner

BRE boast international recognition as the developers of sustainability standards, codes and methodologies (such as BREEAM) for buildings, homes, communities and infrastructure, and so it’s no surprise they need complete confidence that their recycling partner adheres to strict standards. Stone Group Recycling boast an award-winning IT recycling facility at its HQ, which is fully accredited by ADISA and the Environmental Agency, demonstrating compliance with environmental, health and safety laws and regulations. It also offers full reporting and traceability at every
point in the process including a full audit report and certificate disposal. Of particular importance to BRE is that Stone Group is certified by Valpak as a Zero Waste to Landfill provider.

William said: “Both BRE and Stone Group share the same passion for sustainability and most recently Stone reported that it was able to refurbish/reuse 73% of the latest batch of kit it collected from us. Our own auditors quite rightly scrutinize our sustainability and environmental practices – using Stone Group gives us confidence to shout about our green credentials.”

Although BRE does not have classified information on its hard drives, nevertheless it needs to ensure that information is securely wiped and data is destroyed. Stone Group use the same standards as the MOD which provides Will with peace of mind that security protocols are being adhered to. “There are so many reasons to use Stone Group for our recycling” adds Will. “Not only is this amazing service totally free - but occasionally, depending on the age of the equipment we send through, we even get money back! We’ve had anything from £1000 up to £2,500 in rebates and I am always pleasantly surprised to be able to add monies to our IT capital fund. What a service!”