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One of many cubicles offered and faraway from the Rush Constructing. Picture courtesy Bo Solomon
Earlier this yr, when Jennifer Tifone wanted to take away two units of cubicles from the third flooring of the Rush Constructing, the director of finance and administration in Scholar Life knew who to contact to have these cubicles picked up and offered at public sale at no further price to her workplace — and together with her workplace then receiving a lot of the income from that sale.
Since 2014, Drexel Surplus has functioned as a service out there to all Drexel places of work and departments — with no up-front price — as a sustainable and low-maintenance strategy to take away objects like workplace furnishings and provides, in addition to tools from laboratory settings, in a greater, greener approach than merely throwing them out.
When contacted, Drexel Surplus, led by College Sustainability Officer Bo Solomon, arranges for the objects to be picked up — in-house, at no further price and with out having to pay for an out of doors transferring firm — and offered by way of Gov Deals, a authorities public sale web site for non-profits (type of like eBay). When these objects are offered, the workplace from which they got here receives a portion of the sale (Drexel Surplus takes 10% for upkeep prices). And the objects go to a brand new dwelling, moderately than a landfill.
“Objects” is imprecise, however please be aware that Drexel Surplus actually can take, properly, virtually something. This contains workplace provides and furnishings, but in addition all the pieces from a model head to surgical lights to HVAC tools (for what’s presently out there for public sale now). In the past, Solomon has used Gov Offers to promote a wide selection of things owned by the College: a 2009 Ford Escape Hybrid, microscopes, computer systems, printers, tables, chairs, bookcases and submitting cupboards, for instance.
“Surplus is a big a part of preserving issues out of landfill and other people do not actually learn about it,” mentioned Solomon.
The brand new, cubicle-free area within the SORC. Picture courtesy Bo Solomon.
These cubicles from the Rush Constructing? It might have price Tifone $5,500 to take away them by an exterior transferring firm. As an alternative, Drexel Surplus eliminated them, took care of promoting them (Solomon offered them for $422.14) and moved them into their new houses (one of many consumers was a Drexel alumnus utilizing them for a recording studio for his son).
The elimination of the cubicles was “vital to the general operate” of the Scholar Group Useful resource Heart (SORC), Tifone mentioned, which moved into the Rush Constructing from the basement of the Creese Scholar Heart together with the Dean of College students workplace, which had been in Ross Commons. The elimination of the cubicles led to extra open area within the room.
This wasn’t the primary time Tifone used Drexel Surplus; when Scholar Life first moved to the Rush Constructing (after it was vacated by the Faculty of Computing & Informatics), Solomon offered over 30 file cupboards and different extra furnishings left behind that wasn’t wanted. That’s why, for Tifone, the explanation for desirous to undergo Drexel Surplus for this service was twofold.
“As most models know, funds are all the time a balancing act,” she mentioned. “So the thought of spending $5,500 to take away these cubicals was a pressure on an already tight finances. The second was that these have been good cubicles, and the concept these could be eliminated and primarily be thrown right into a landfill or elements of them could be recycled did not sit properly with me. Whereas they did not work for my area, they could possibly be helpful to others. I favored the concept these things may get a second life some other place.”
It’s an excellent time, Solomon mentioned, for college {and professional} employees to be considerate about how they might take away objects from their workplace. In November, Solomon was named College Sustainability Officer. Together with different college students, college {and professional} employees, he has been a part of the Climate and Sustainability Working Group overseeing and implementing varied College-wide and multi-pronged climate and sustainability initiatives to be applied all through Drexel’s academic mission, institutional operations and public engagement. That group additionally labored to declare 2021 as “Climate Year,” a yearlong effort to launch the local weather emergency right into a precedence concern for Drexel’s educating, analysis and operations. Plus, with the COVID-19 pandemic, places of work are redesigning, or occupied with redesigning, their use of area on campus — and Drexel Surplus is right here to assist.
“Lots of people consider sustainability as recycling and what I do, like preserving issues out of landfill,” mentioned Solomon. “However a variety of it’s environmental justice, analysis and educating. That’s why it’s an awesome factor to type of tie collectively what Drexel has been doing, particularly now with Local weather 12 months and the working group, as a result of there are lots of people doing stuff and lots of people are keen on sustainable efforts at Drexel.”
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