Submitted by Grainne Kennedy on Thu, 2018-04-26 15:28
Did you know that the University has an internal re-use portal which can be used to distribute unwanted items for free between departments? This month the portal helped to get bums on seats – literally!
With a building on the West Cambridge site being cleared out ready to be converted into a new multi-faith centre, there were a number of furniture items which were destined for disposal. David, a project manager in Estates Management, was keen for the items not to go to waste. By posting the items on WarpIt, a large amount of furniture found a new home elsewhere on the University Estate. This included 13 chairs, 3 coffee tables and 2 pedal bins which were claimed by Allison at the Fitzwilliam Museum to kit out their staff room.
As can be seen in the picture above, the chairs are in great condition and are looking fantastic in their new home. Even better, Allison calculated that if the furniture had been purchased new they would have cost £1,642 – a huge saving! For David, disposing of the items would have likely cost several hundred pounds – so it was a win all round! The furniture items that could not be rehomed through WarpIt were donated to Emmaus, where the money raised from selling them will be used to help homeless people in Cambridge.
Registration with Warp-It is simple and free for all University staff, and provides a number of useful features such as notifications when items are uploaded to the portal or requested. As a prime example of the benefits of these notifications, this month Kathryn from the Department of Medicine requested an operator chair on her Warp-It ‘wish list’. This was picked up by Peter from the Environment & Energy section who was able to link Kathryn up with a spare chair from another University building clearance. Within a few hours collection had been arranged, and Kathryn happily testifies that the chair is very comfortable – another success!
If you want to try out Warp-It, you can register an account at www.warp-it.co.uk/company/cambridgeuni. For queries about Warp-It contact the Environment & Energy section.