Good Home for a Guillotine

Taking up precious space in a basement storage room was an industrial guillotine that Greenstone had procured for a reason no one remembered and by somebody no one could recall. It was still in very good condition despite the fact its main purpose over the past few years was to keep other unnecessary items company.

Deciding that the basement space could be better used as bike storage for all the fit fellas who cycle into the office, we cleared out all the unnecessary items and decided to sell the guillotine to try recoup some of the investment. We contacted the only supplier(s) of this type of machinery to try and find a buyer. That’s when we met Paul.

Paul is the manager of Altus Enterprises, a not-for-profit organisation that exists to provide work for people with disabilities, to realise their potential and bring to them the sense of purpose and social inclusion that working provides. They provide contract packing services to business clients such as Air New Zealand, undertaking time consuming jobs that need to be done efficiently. Through providing manual work to external clients and receiving remuneration, employees develop a sense of achievement and satisfaction knowing that their work is contributing to others’ lives and businesses.

One of the projects Paul had lined up required an industrial strength guillotine, just like the one we had, but the $1,900 cost of a new one was out of reach for his organisation. Paul happened to approach the supplier we had previously contacted, and the supplier sent him our way.

After hearing about the great work that Paul and the team at Altus Enterprises do, Greenstone were thrilled to be able to help and donated the guillotine free of charge.

The team at Altus have already put it to good use.

A big, big thank you for the guillotine you kindly gave us, we made 200,000 cuts in 100,000 bits of paper on Friday and Monday. The task given to us by an airline customer was to recycle a large tray mat into two smaller ones.

Our two employees Nina and Natasha learnt how to use the guillotine safely on Thursday and completed the task in the following two days. This was a great experience for Altus and we are very grateful for your generosity in donating the guillotine to us, it’s given two people new skills which will be shared among many, its saved a pallet of tray covers from going into landfill and given Altus some income from the work involved.

Thank you, Greenstone Group. - Paul Stoneman | Altus Manager 

Since meeting Paul, we have also found out that Altus Enterprises developed the social enterprise Will&Able who’s eco cleaning products we have just switched to using in our office! Small world indeed - we are loving the Will&Able products!