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 it comes to culture change: One of the most persuasive sources of information that staff need to hear to make that change is word of mouth influence from other staff.

Just like when you’re shopping online and want to browse through the customer reviews, staff want to see what kinds of experiences other people have had with your proposed culture change project.

I was speaking to Alex Fowler from Humberside NHS recently and he said that there were departments within his organisation who were now using 100% reused furniture.

This got me thinking about making it easy for Alex to do a case study in these departments. So see below for our downloadable template.

In this case we are talking about identifying a department who are doing really well on your furniture and equipment reuse program, however it can apply to any culture change project.

In this blog post we explain a couple of benefits of using case study and give you access to a template  to go about creating a case study in order to increase participation in your online reuse portal.

In our ongoing series looking at the US Surplus Asset sector  we talk to David Mazzocco, Associate Director of Sustainability and Projects, Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania.

We had the pleasure of talking to Sally Northover from Macquarie University and she gave us a great insight into making the logical case for the centralized management of surplus assets. 

Southern Oregon University Surplus Program Case study

We have been looking into the US surplus sector to get an insight into how the US deal with the reuse of their surplus assets. In doing so we have spoken to many surplus managers... as we were talking to so many we thought..

"It is no use us getting all this great info. Let's make case studies so we can share our learnings"

...and so here is another interview/ case study!

In this case study we interview Iain Graalum, the the Campus Mail Services Supervisor for Southern Oregon University to find out how their system works and see what advice we can glean from him.

To be clear Southern Oregon University are not Warp It customers. 

Iain was so generous with his time and expertise. Thankyou so much Iain!

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. 

Therefore we spoke to some US universities about their surplus reuse programs. 

In this case study we interview Glenn Feagley, the Surplus Property manager for Pennsylvania State University to find out how their system works and seek his tips for success.

To be clear Pennsylvania State University are not Warp It customers- we conducted this case study to share their practices so that others can benefit.