Our Mission
in Action
Upcycle4Good is proud to support the work of
Woolrich Outdoor Foundation.
With the help of Upcycle4Good, which connected Tumbleweed with Woolrich, we were able to provide our youth with warm coats for the winter. Upcycle4good made the process seamless.”
–Tumbleweed Executive Director
What we did: Upcycle4 Good facilitated a large donation of Woolrich clothing to at-risk youth at the Montana-based, non-profit Tumbleweed.
After a fire in a U.S. warehouse caused smoke damage to a wide variety of winter garments, Woolrich turned to their sustainability team, Woolrich Outdoor Foundation, for a solution. The Foundation’s team, based in Milan, Italy, is a member of 1% for the Planet and was able to search 1%’s nonprofit database where they discovered Upcycle4Good — a US-based 1% nonprofit member — for assistance in repurposing the garments.
Upcycle4Good introduced Woolrich Outdoor Foundation to the Billings, Montana – based Tumbleweed Program, a community-based nonprofit serving homeless, trafficked, runaway and otherwise at-risk youth and their families.
Within a month, Tumbleweed received the largest in-kind donation in its history: over 1,350 garments — parkas, sweaters, beanies, scarfs — for use by its vulnerable youth during the Montana winters. This life-changing donation by the Woolrich Outdoor Foundation was begotten by a random fire in a warehouse many miles away, and facilitated by a handful of passionate believers in sustainability and helping others.
U4G’s work with local non-profits provides a sustainable solution.
What we did: Upcycle4 Good worked with its partners to repurpose and recycle office equipment no longer in need.
MGO, a professional services firm, was in the process of acquiring a CPA firm in Melville, Long Island, and as a paperless environment, found that they would have surplus desktop printers, copiers and other IT equipment. After having reached out to Pupfish Sustainability Solutions for a recycling solution, Pupfish saw the value of many of the units and reached out to Upcycle4Good.
Upcycle4Good toured Nussbaum’s office with their office manager to photograph and catalog the equipment which it then shared with nonprofits in its network on Long Island and NYC. Within weeks, all usable equipment was repurposed to nonprofits, and Pupfish recycled the equipment that had little viable remaining life. U4G’s logistics partner, JunkLuggers of Long Island, helped retrieve and deliver standalone printer-copiers for use by two nonprofits.
U4G diverts pallets of PPE to non-profits instead of the landfill.
What we did: Upcycle4 Good worked with its partners to repurpose and recycle office equipment no longer in need.
Habitat for Humanity’s ReStore provides a unique opportunity for the Upcycle4Good team. As a nonprofit home improvement and donation resource to the community, the ReStore is a receiving nonprofit aligned with Upcycle4Good’s mission. The ReStore on Long Island sometimes calls upon Upcycle4Good for help with inventory.
For example, when the COVID-19 pandemic left some businesses with a plethora of personal protective materials — masks, gloves and hand sanitizers in varying forms, the Long Island ReStore received an extremely large donation of these goods and — as is their model — made them available for sale. Unfortunately, there was little market for these items post-crisis. ReStore’s dilemma: what to do with many pallets of unsellable items, which were taking up space in the store and preventing them from receiving other, potentially more saleable goods?
After a call to Upcycle4Good to assist, we reached out to several nonprofit partners we work with throughout Long Island and NYC. While hospitals we sometimes partner with use these sanitizing and protective goods, strict procurement processes do not allow them as donations, so undaunted, we continued our search. Eventually U4G placed 100% of the available protective goods with other nonprofits on Long Island.
The ReStore has their storage space back; nonprofits with daily interaction with the community are using the hand sanitizer, gloves and masks without having to use program resources for their purchase, and pallets of otherwise unneeded items were diverted from a landfill.