Transforming e-waste into e-education

NETSPRING, with its “Green IT Classrooms” program, is committed to protect the environment and help underprivileged children in Asia by developing the recycling economy, creating shared value between developed and under-developed areas and helping vulnerable groups such as underpreviledged students or people with disabilities.

A pioneer social enterprise in Asia

NETSPRING was born from the encounter between leaders of the Shanghai Overseas Chinese Foundation and an international strategic advisory firm, with strong expertise in innovative CSR, during a conference organized by Fudan University Xu-Ricci Dialogue Institute.

NETSPRING was created in 2012 in Hong-Kong upon the following findings:

• Computers and other electronic equipment become obsolete more and more quickly, as market trends are endlessly changing. For example in China, at least 5 million computers are discarded and turned into e-waste every year. Over 70% of them are collected by illegal recycling vendors, dismantled and even burned in a very rough way. Such practice causes massive toxic chemical release, heavily polluting the air, the water and the soil, and is harmful to human health. However, parts of such obsolete computers are still in good working conditions and could be reused after appropriate repair.
• At the same time, for example millions Chinese students in under-developed rural area have no or limited access to computers and the internet, preventing their chances to acquire digital literacy and to study in the future. They are striving to learn more and widen their horizon.

The Green IT Classroom program

NETSPRING focuses on mobilizing key stakeholders such as companies, institutions or universities to provide their old computers, for 3 years, to schools that lack IT resources. At the end of the program NETSPRING collects back the computers and have them dismantled in certified factories in an environmental-friendly way. To promote this program among partner companies’ employees and local communities NETSPRING organizes opening ceremonies, volunteer and team building activities in the schools. Additionally our team operates a close follow-up during the whole duration of the program to ensure that IT resources benefit to the children in a proper way. 

Our history

Netspring Ltd (Social Enterprise) is a pioneer social enterprise, founded in Hong-Kong in 2012. The company launched the “Netspring Green IT Classroom” Program to “Transform e-waste into e-education” for underprivileged children’s digital inclusion and the promotion of a circular economy model.

After successful launch of the pilot program by Netspring Ltd and founding members in 2012, Shanghai Yiquan Social Enterprise, was established in PRC in 2013, as an operational company to support the development of additional Netspring Green IT classrooms.

Netspring also launched the Special Needs Green IT Classrooms in support of the education of the Visually Impaired in China, and strengthened its IT coding teaching capacity with partners. Due to the Covid 19 influence, Netspring launched the Teach the Teachers program and developed distance teaching for students with the aim to improve their education and create shared value. Since 2019, Netspring Green IT Classroom Programs has been one of the green common good programs under the framework of FCEM supported by the Embassy of France in China.

Environmental and social impact 

NETSPRING is committed to protect the environment and to help underprivileged kids by developing the recycling economy, creating shared value between developed and under-developed Chinese areas and helping vulnerable groups such as poverty-stricken students or people with disabilities. To date, the Netspring Green IT program has provided digital learning to more than 78 000 children, organized over 150 volunteer activities and protected our environment by helping organizations to dismantle or re-use more than 120T of e-waste.