Reuse is not given the priority it deserves

We’ve mentioned this notion before, that organisational sustainability and procurement strategies are lacking a focus on reuse. In this article we are going to explain some of the best practices for including reuse in strategic agendas, including how to build support for a reuse project and how to demonstrate its value.

All the reasons why reuse systems are low-hanging fruit for Smart cities

‘Smart City’ is a new buzzword in the world of sustainability, environment and urban planning, but why wouldn’t it be? It’s great to see nature and technology influence design in a way that they focus on working together for a better future. This whole sector is seeing massive growth and progression, with sub-sectors seeing huge opportunities to introduce new ideas and test out theories.

Warp It are pleased to welcome Andrew Mouat from Glasgow City Council to dive deeper into GAS, the Glasgow Asset Share Group. This is not our first article on this subject, in fact, you can see more material on this innovative enterprise here. In this article we see some new perspectives, in particular:

Low time input but big impact

I want to maximise your impact with ideas that are easy to produce but have a big impact. These activities are force multipliers for your reuse program! Just pick one to do every week or month and you will be chipping away at culture change without much effort.

One way to learn is to make mistakes. Another way to learn is to listen to a teacher. Another way to learn is to talk to people who have done it before.

By talking to others and sharing experiences we learn quicker. What works, what doesnt work. 

When Glenn Feagley, the Lion Surplus Manager at Penn State University said:

“At Penn State University, the Surplus Department can generate up to $2 to $3 million a year and I know a few more universities are doing similar.”

we knew we had to find out more.

America always seems to think big! We wanted to find out more about the surplus property sector and reuse within American Universities to see if there were any good ideas we could present back to our customers. We spoke to surplus and sustainability managers all over USA and produced this report- Read about it here. 

Thankyou to all the dedicated managers who helped us with this study.

For convenience we thought we would put all of the US Case studies in one place on line so here they are. 

Today we are talking to Matthew Buckley from Vanderbilt University. Matthew  is the University’s Surplus Property Manager. Matthew was so generous with his time and expertise so that we could bring you his learnings and experience in setting up and running a surplus program across the University. 

In our ongoing series looking at the US Surplus Asset sector  we talk to Corey Berman is the Recycling Program Manager at the University of Vermont. 

Temple University has only recently set up it's surplus program and so we get some new insights in this case study. This is another look at how they do surplus in the US. Temple University are not a Warp It customer but we present this information so that we can all learn from their experiences. 

Temple University was founded in 1884 by Baptist Minister Russell Conwell. The university is currently known as a noteworthy provider of professional education in areas such as law, medicine, podiatry, pharmacy, dentistry, or architecture. In 2016, over 39,500 undergraduate, graduate, and professional students were enrolled in over 400 academic degree programs offered at seven campuses and sites in Pennsylvania, and international campuses in Rome, Tokyo, Singapore and London.

When Glenn Feagley, the Lion Surplus Manager at Penn State University said:

“At Penn State University, the Surplus Department can generate up to $2 to $3 million a year and I know a few more universities are doing similar.”

we knew we had to find out more.

We are always looking for ways to improve how we deliver the Warp It service to all of our customers. Therefore we felt that we could learn from and how the US sector maximises resource and asset value. We spoke to a whole host of surplus managers to get the lowdown and have presented our findings in the report below. 

This report will be of use to 

• Surplus managers
• Procurement managers
• Sustainability managers
• Waste managers
• Service design managers
• Finance Directors
• Estates and Facilities Directors