Snapped a pic of this huge aluminium ingot as we were driving back from a great Warpit meeting in the NW. If a can of aluminium is 14g that means this lump weighs 21 tonnes. Not sure what an ingot of aluminium is worth but baled cans are £1000 baled- so this ingot prob worth well over £21k - maybe almost double.
Saturday, 29 October 2011
Monday, 24 October 2011
Sunday, 23 October 2011
Resource efficiency and challenges of ticking all the boxes.
WARPit has been live for 4 full months now- and it has been a very busy summer/autumn. I have travelled up and down the country several times, had a visitor from Austailia and attended several conferences. We have about 30 organisations on board taking trials and we also have a further 10 or so who have gone ahead and purchased subscriptions or are about to.
In the current climate this is positive however I do find that because WARPit ticks so many different boxes it is hard to get the main messages across because it means different things to different people.
I have summarised here the main benefits but I have outlined below the main benefits to different sectors below.
Waste and Facilities Management
WARPit is a zero waste tool as it finds new owners for surplus resources, within the same organisation or partner organisations- reducing waste disposal costs and risk.
Cabinets in a storage yard
Procurement
WARPit is a sustainable procurement tool because it stops people buying new. The system facilitates Ebay style searches- so staff can find surplus resources inside their organisation and beyond- within partner organisations. Reducing the need to purchase new, saving embedded carbon and procurement spend.
Space efficiency
As WARPit encourages staff to upload and redistribute surplus resources- it encourages decluttering, which increases space efficiency.
Furthermore the loaning facility allows organisations to free up space by loaning out resources they might only use once in a while which they normallyhave to store. A great example of this is a University who usually stores exam desls between usage which is only twice a year. WARPit allows them to loan the desks to schools when not in use- saving on warehousing.
Rooms all over the UK packed to the brim with spare stuff
Large firms and Local Authorities
Due to the economic climate many organsations are down sizing- When someone leaves and organisation they leave behind all of their resources. WARPit helps to redistribute these resources easily and legally.
Surplus and redundant furniture and equipment is massive problem in the public sector. It is a challenge to find new owners for useable resources quickly and easily. There is nothing more indicative on a wasteful organisation than good quality furniture in skips. WARPit fixes this issue.
Schools
There are many opportunities for schools to share physical resources which have idling capacity. Usually a school will require the resources when one school doesn't and vice versa.
For example, in the school environment each school has equipment it only uses a few times a year or a term- lab and sports equipment, IT equipment the list is endless.
Schools can legally and safely loan equipment to each other when it is not being used. In the short term this reduces the cost of purchasing new for the claiming school, but also frees up space for the contributing school.
If a Local Authority signs up to WARPit all of their schools get the service for free.
Business
WARPit provides a great platform for business of any size to access cheap or free office equipment safely and legally. For a small subscription rate business can search for surplus resources in thge area and beyond.
Construction industry
When refurbishment projects start the client usually leaves furniture, equipment and fixtures and fittings inside the building- which is inconvenient for the contractor. WARPit makes it easy to redistribute the resources.
City wide sharing economy
Resource collaboration between organisations is the really exciting part. The WARPit network enables resources to be transferred legally and safely from areas where they are not needed to somewhere where they are. That might be in the same organisation- or it could be to an organisation carrying out similar activities locally such as universities, councils, hospitals, SMEs charities or schools. A great opportunity for towns/ city’s / regions to develop local sharing networks
Third sector
I have detailed third sector benefits here
The reason I developed the resource sharing network?
The effectiveness of the system increases as more join, as there are more resources circulating and the system serves its community better. The co- operative principle is always the same- many hands make light work, and the greater the collective benefit to the community.
In these times of improved efficiencies organisations must look across the road at their neighbours and look to share resources both physical mental and social.
Wednesday, 19 October 2011
Anti storage
Storage is expensive
Also storage doubles the chance of damage to furniture and injury to the person handling it.
Furthermore storage requires management- which takes time!
Annnd another thing- the contents of stores often get forgotten about- and become obsolete, and then need to be disposed of... So it's expensive in those terms too!
The Warpit network is designed so that transfer of resources is direct from point of donation to the claimant - missing out storage all together. You might say i am anti storage!
Tuesday, 23 August 2011
True Sustainable Procurement- don’t buy stuff you don’t need?
This chair was pulled from a skip with all wheels intact, lumbar support and gas lift working.
You probably know this already: If you work in a large organisation, there are surplus operator’s chairs, inkjet cartridges and desks in the organisation not being used- stashed away for a rainy day.
Yet in other departments, staff are still buying operators chairs, inkjet cartridges and desks- even when there is a surplus elsewhere!
WARPit is a sustainable procurement tool which is saving organisations money, carbon and waste.
The tool reduces procurement spend by making it really easy for anyone purchasing "anything" in an organisation to check whether anyone else in the organisation has the item spare first.
WARPit reduces waste disposal spend because it allows anyone in an organisation to give, loan, share, rent or sell a resource internally or externally.
Instead of throwing "stuff" away, staff should be able to find new owners (with in the organisation or externally) easily and legally.
The following week, in a different department in the same organisation, I observed 30 new operators chairs being delivered- costing £130 each. 200 excellent condition operators chairs out the front door week 1
30 brand spanking new operators chairs in the back door 2 working days later!
People are inherently good, not evil- staff do not want to waste resources like this but there is something wrong with the system. It is a challenge to find new owners for useable resources legally, quickly and easily. It is also easier and quicker for purchasing staff to purchase new “stuff” rather than find the surplus resources in the organisation.
Staff should not be buying stuff that the organisation already has spare, and people do not want throw away good quality resources.
Due to social networking technology, it is now possible to match supply and demand through nearly instantaneous mass synchronisation of wants and needs in a way which both sides gain.
I am Daniel O’Connor , an ex Local Authority Officer and I have just launched a organisational redistribution network called WARPit - it is a Social Network for organisational collaboration and resource sharing.
In simple terms WARPit reduces the need to purchase by making it very easy for staff who are about to purchase stuff, to find others in the same or partner organisations who already have spare "stuff". 
WARPit also reduces waste spend by making it easy for people who want to dispose of "stuff" to find homes either internally or externally
There are loads of benefits: Please also check out how it works on Youtube and here is a summary of the problems that it solves.
Bound for the skip until thrid sector partners were informed
My clients are achieving payback times of about 10-14 days for your average organisation.
Have a look at Sunderland CC's WARPit portal. They are saving about £1000 a week on avoided procurement costs. Hit the green search button top right to see what they are swapping today.
If you like what you see drop me an email here
Sunday, 14 August 2011
Crazy wasteful times!
So we go the the environmental and financial expense of manufacturing and delivering desks. The desk gets used for 5 years. A building then gets a refurb.
The desk is not redistributed to anyone else but left to the refurb contractor to remove. The contractor bills the organisation for disassembly, removal and disposal on top if the refurb budget!
No one taking responsibility fir the resource and so is wasted
The photos here show disassembled perfectly good condition desks and notice boards being skipped and headed for recycling and or landfill....
Saturday, 6 August 2011
We teach children to share- schools should too.
The cost of purchasing rises every year and budgets get smaller every year. A new breed of services are cropping up which could help schools do more with less.
In the UK 80% of the items that people own are used less than once a month. You may use a power drill between six and thirteen minutes in it’s entire lifetime and yet half of households have their own power drill. There are power drills all across the nation just gathering dust and taking up space. There is the same situation in the school environment.
The unused potential of all of these drills is called the idling capacity. Ownership of a product you use just once or twice a year makes no rational sense.
There are many opportunities for schools to share physical resources which have idling capacity. Usually a school will require the resources when one school doesn't and vice versa.
For example, in the school environment each school has equipment it only uses a few times a year or a term- lab and sports equipment, IT equipment the list is endless.
How can we use this idling capacity of equipment, resources and items to redistribute it elsewhere?
Social networks make it easy to match supply and demand through nearly instantaneous mass synchronisation of wants and needs in a way which both sides gain.
“I have set up a social network which makes it easy for schools to give, share and loan equipment to each other.” Says Daniel O’Connor- developer of www.warp-it.co.uk
Schools can legally and safely loan equipment to each other when it is not being used. In the short term this reduces the cost of purchasing new for the claiming school, but also frees up space for the contributing school.
“Take for example the skeleton model in biology which are usually purchased and kept by high schools. The skeleton model can now be passed temporarily to schools which do not have one or even to primary schools for use in lessons, before being passed back to the original school.”
“A teacher in Sunderland has put an Egyptology resource pack on the system. This means instead of each school buying an Egyptology resource pack, one can be shared amongst many. Saving money for all”
This is just two examples- I am sure teachers can think of many more ways to share resources, but in the long run we may have to adjust inters school time tables to share physical resources!”
In the long run schools can get to understand their needs and can go into a joint purchasing agreement and share resources or equipment. This reduces costs and gets maximum use out of the equipment.
There are obvious liability and maintenance issues but these are managed using the system.
Schools can also link up with other educational institutions- for example Universities often only use exam desks twice a year- and the rest of the year they have to store them. WARP-IT now provides the mechanism for universities to share exam desks with schools- saving everyone money
Daniel says “The big financial saving is we don’t have to buy new stuff and we don’t have to pay for stuff to be thrown away. Because we don’t have to buy new stuff we reduce waste and carbon emissions."
Monday, 18 July 2011
Sunday, 17 July 2011
People don't believe me when I say it
All because communications are not convenient or sophisticated enough.
Only last week I was asked to find new homes for 200 operators chairs worth £120 each- which I did- local charity benefited.
However imagine my surprise (or lack of) when I noticed some brand new operator chairs being delivered just 4 days later- at another part of the organisation.
There's no real excuse for this- we have the tech available to solve the problem; www.warp-it.co.uk
Wednesday, 29 June 2011
Tales from the skip and why it is important to share.
People do not want to throw away good quality resources. But no one has any time or space and effective communications are challenging.
Transferring ownership of equipment requires time energy and effort as well as good quality communications. Issues include: finding a new owner for an item, checking the item, making sure the transfer is legal and safe, booking in collection, transport etc. It is an onerous task and it is often easier to book a skip or if you have good flexible third sector contacts- they may be able to help with the stuff that is excellent quality.
This is just too much for the average staff member who is working at full tilt already.
I have spent some time exploring the issues surrounding the transfer of stuff from one person/organisation to another. The following are a few of the pitfalls to avoid and observations I have made while trying to transfer resources within and across private public and third sector so that resources keep circulating.
These charis were rescued from the skip
I have made this information public to encourage reuse and refurbishment. I hope you can use it to develop your own system. Before you go ahead and build your own system or engage someone to build one for you, take a moment to check out www.warp-it.co.uk which is an online portal I have developed to keep resources circulating- which takes into account all of the issues below. WARPit is achieving payback times of about 10 days for your average organisation.
Strategic barriers
Twitchy and rightly so: Legal and liability concerns.
Any efficient system should ensure Duty of Care and liability concerns are obliged and managed. There are specific actions that need to take place to make sure that equipment is reused legally and safely. If equipment does become waste, again, this has to be managed in a specific way.
Using social network features and technology it is now possible and convenient for users to match needs and wants in an almost instantaneous way in which both sides benefit- and resources are kept circulating rather than ending up in a skip because matches between contributors and claimants are easy and convenient.
Computer says ...yes.
The transfer of goods from one person to another on any scale is complex and there are many issues. Some existing online, email or message board redistribution systems involve clunkiness or manual inputting - this is time consuming and inefficient and does not maximise resource use.
Systems should be able to carry out 100s of transfers with minimum human administration. Any system should have as little manual admin intervention as possible- working automatically with fail safe mechanisms.
Ease of use, or can I say “idiot proof”?
To increase the chance of reusing equipment you need high participation. To get high participation you need ridiculously easy to use system. Ease of use is a very high importance. This is where a lot of schemes fall over. When designing a system keep thinking “is this a barrier to use?”. Every barrier will stop another person using the system and increase the chance of something ending up in a skip. However you have to balance this with other requirements such as security and accurate descriptions of goods for example.
Secure by design
Systems should offer a high degree of control and management. This is to avoid any abuse of the system and possible duty of care/legal issues. When dealing with potential waste material compliance with waste legislation and procedure is paramount. Your control system has to ensure traceability and duty of care. This is especially important when using third parties.
Ensuring good behaviour
Any system should have features which encourage good behaviour. For example what happens when J. Bloggs says he is going to claim an item but then does not show up? The system falls over for the contributor and they don’t participate the next time. There should also be features which ensure users of the system abide by certain terms- for example fraudulent use of the system could be possible without the right controls.
Putting the social in social media
Relationships between all users is very important to keep a system in high participation. Expectations, good behaviour and trusting strangers are all aspects that will keep a system running well. There should be mechanisms so that relationships can be nurtured and everyone knows what is expected.
Main aspects
Contributor is king
Be nice to the person uploading resources to be reused (contributor). The contributors are the lifeblood of any system. Make sure their experience is as easy as possible. For this reason it should always be the claimant’s responsibility to collect the donated item and to incur any cost. There should be as little burden on the contributing party as possible.
Best Value for all
Any system should be able to get maximum value from resources. For example, you could incorporate refurbishment or recycling opportunities for bulky wastes past their best. Furthermore if you can design a mechanism where you can get some sort of credit when you pass reusuable goods to others- then this is more value to your organisation- even if the credit is just civic leadership.
Great Communications
Efficient communications between contributor and claimant ensure good transfers of resources. Make sure full contact details are included in any transfer and remember to put the focus on the claimant to do the chasing up. Think about how other social networks allow easy communications
Paying to store waste?
Any system should transfer items from contributor to claimant directly- the secret to this is having a big network. Some organisations have storage: If you store items then you are increasing the chance of damage and injury by two. Also when in storage, items become obsolete and then have to be disposed of. In effect if you store equipment you maybe storing and paying for ‘waste’ until disposal.
If you are going to store, an automatic stock management system should be integrated into the system as well as an “on line shop” facility where possible claimants can view the item on line rather than going to a warehouse.
We are all good people- but rewarding good behaviour helps
People like being part of the solution. Any system should encourage a community of resource efficient members and explore incentives. For example I am currently exploring setting up partnerships with local discount schemes.
Best practice features
Tell me about it!
Any efficient system should record and monitor the levels of use with specific emphasis on carbon, waste and financial indicators. This is useful for senior management and ongoing funding of the scheme as well as positive feedback to the users.
Speed (carbon) dating
Resources end up not being used or in the skip because people leave thinking about their surplus resources to the last moment. Any system should find new owners quickly. This has to do with ease of use, good features and a large network of communication. The larger the network the more likely you will find a match.
Never work with children and animals...or adults in a hurry
The transfer of resources from one person to another is fraught with possible pitfalls. Expectation issues from both parties, transport issues, Health and Safety, locational issues, making sure claimants collect etc
These are all areas where the transfer can fall down and resources end up in the skip. It is important for systems to have fail safe mechanisms to reduce the likelihood of any of the above happening. This can be done through well designed features which lead users along the correct path.
Be ambitious!
At present most systems only attempt to transfer office furniture. If you can get the legal and liability concerns obliged there is no reason why any resource should not be transferred. Other resources should be able to be distributed such as fixtures and fittings (e.g. shelves), electrical, consumables (e.g. inkjet cartridges, lab glass ware), supplies (e.g. food) and non standard items such as books- any physical resource really.
Consult consult consult
The customer knows best and it is important to make it easy for users to pass comments and make feedback on the system. Hand in hand with this- systems should be flexible so you can drop in requested features.
Long term reuse
Any new system which is adopted should have longevity as big changes between systems should be kept to a minimum to ensure wide spread staff adoption. For this reason it is also important to have belief in any contractor who is providing the service. Things to look out for include robust financial models which ensure longevity of the scheme.
Help!
Any system should be highly user friendly but also include guides, clips and graphics to help. If there is a 24/7 customer support then all the better!
Notes and a plug
I have saved £MILLIONS in avoided procurement and waste disposal spend for over 100 organisations in the last 10 years. While working in public sector I noticed there were many issues which hindered the safe and legal transfer of ownership of usuable resources between organisations. Then the penny dropped one day. People don’t want to throw stuff away – they just need a system to conveniently safely and legally transfer goods from where they aren’t needed to where they are needed.
I have recently launched www.warp-it.co.uk an easy to use online portal which provides a platform for organisations to redistribute (give, sell, loan or share) surplus resou
rces legally and conveniently within the organisation and beyond, within other partner organisations.
- Avoids waste disposal costs
- Avoids the cost of purchasing new resources.
- Administration time for purchasing/ disposal reduced.
- Waste is diverted from landfill
- Carbon emissions reduced
- Supports charities, community groups and SMEs
WARP-IT creates a whole region/city/town level resource sharing network improving the sustainability of all organisations in the network.
WARPit launched 6 weeks ago and is attracting some serious attention around the UK and in Australia. Sunderland City Council are the first Local Authority to take advantage and have achieved pay back in about 20 days and have saved about 2 tonnes of CO2e in the first 30 working days of use.
If you are interested in resource efficiency and work for a large organisation SME or charity you should take a look at WARP-IT.
I have made th
is information public to encourage reuse and refurbishment. I hope you can use it to develop your own system. I have a matrix of aspects to look for when comparing different reuse systems. For a copy please send email to:
Friday, 25 February 2011
Enough for all for ever?
Friday, 4 February 2011
Tuesday, 1 February 2011
Working all day on a Saturday
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