University Warehouse and Surplus wins APPA award
Purdue has received the 2012 APPA Effective and Innovative Practices Award for the Warehouse and Surplus sustainability programs.
A department of Service Enterprises within Physical Facilities, Warehouse and Surplus works to be both environmentally and financially sustainable through its efforts to extend the useful life of University assets and to divert waste from landfills, says Alan Leonard, director of service enterprises.
APPA's Effective and Innovative Practices Award is given to entities that increase productivity, lower costs, improve customer service, generate revenue or otherwise benefit an educational institution. All entries were judged based on the following criteria:
* Institutional benefit.
* Innovativeness, creativity, and originality.
* Portability and sustainability.
* Management commitment and employee involvement.
* Documentation, analysis, customer input, and benchmarking.
Collaborating with University Sustainability on the award application, University Warehouse and Surplus chose to focus on the following sustainability programs: the Billboard Program and the Recycling for the Future Program.
The Billboard Program is designed to reallocate University assets across all Purdue campuses. Departments can place items no longer in use on the Billboard website, and other departments can acquire the items. This program has resulted in approximately $250,000 being returned to various campus departments.
The Recycling for the Future Program promotes data security and electronic device recycling. It offers a systematic, auditable and reliable process for the disposal of electronic storage media containing University data. These items are shredded with an industrial shredder at the University Warehouse. In addition to increased data security, the shredding byproducts are disposed of in an environmentally friendly manner.
Prior to the implementation of this program, Purdue's Radiological and Environmental Management (REM) department paid for outside contractors to shred critical electronic storage media. Now that media is being shredded in-house, the byproducts are generating revenue through the recycling process rather than creating an additional expense.
University Warehouse and Surplus is continuously exploring opportunities to help the environment and improve their programs, Leonard says. This is the first time the department has won the APPA Effective and Innovative Practices Award; however, Physical Facilities has received this award three years in a row.
