Purchase of licence to use Warp-It, Resource Reuse Portal.
Summary:
Local and national Public Sector organisations have demonstrated significant financial and
environmental savings by sharing physical resources within and between organisations using
the WARP-IT Portal. The cost of the licence is £1000 p.a. plus vat. The University has saved
£4000 during a free trial of the scheme. The free trial of the system ends in December 2012.
It is proposed that a license to use the portal is purchased and that the scheme is launched
and maintained University wide in order to achieve economic and environmental savings for
the University.
Background:
WARP-IT is an easy to use online portal which provides a platform for organisations to
redistribute (give, loan or share) resources legally and conveniently within the organisation
and beyond, within other organisations.
Effective use of WARP-IT will demonstrate significant savings, reducing disposal costs for
unwanted, reusable equipment and reducing purchasing costs of new equipment that could
have been sourced from within the University or partner organisations.
Options and associated issues/ benefits:
1. Do Nothing:
a. Status Quo: Existing operations can continue with only the need to purchase
or dispose of items as necessary. No storage of equipment is needed as our
waste contractor can dispose of items within short timescales.
b. Currently Faculties and Services pay to dispose of their own waste, but
cannot collect it in enough quantities to ensure economies of scale in the
disposal costs. There is no opportunity to identify items within the waste
streams that could be reused.
c. The University as a whole pays to dispose of items that could be reused,
increasing costs.
d. Internal reputational risk: Members of staff from across the University have
previously bemoaned the lack of a reuse facility for their unwanted
resources, “Why are we throwing perfectly good furniture away when
someone else could use it?”
e. Waste Hierarchy and Scope 3 emissions: Facilities has concentrated on
recycling since 2005 and achieved high recycling rates with the remainder of
waste being used to create energy. However failure to act on Reduction of
waste and reuse will impact on Scope 3 emissions for Procurement and
Waste.
2. Use of alternatives: e.g. FreeCycle:
a. Accessibility: Users can access the website easily and this would require no
administration from the University.
b. Accountability: Users can sign up on personal e-mail accounts and reuse
University equipment through the site. There are no restrictions on who can
claim University items.
c. Liability: Once the items have left the University they are out of University
control, if misused, or faulty liability could be with the University if there is no
disclaimer in place.
d. Control: The University manages its Waste Disposal in compliance with
current legislation, especially its WEEE and confidential waste (IT). Could the
website allow enough control so that electrical items are not allowed to be
disposed of via the site, including PCs that will contain confidential
information?
e. Fit for Purpose and Customer Service Issues: Freecycle is a site designed for
individuals, not organisations and is based on volunteers and moderator
groups; no-one would be accountable to the University.
f. Delivery costs: Freecycle website covers the UK and US, if items were shared
with individuals outside the University, who would transport, ship, and
finance them. This could be a considerable cost to the University.
g. Data Capture: Reusing items reduces waste streams, no data would be
available to demonstrate how much the University has reused or diverted
from other waste streams.
3. Use WARP-IT:
a. Cost issues: This is currently £1000 p.a. plus vat.
b. University staff resource is required to launch and maintain the scheme. No
unique post has been identified for this role.
c. Risk of failure or limited take up of the scheme: Financial loss after purchase
of license, damage to reputation and risk of future ventures failing if
reference is made to a failed WARP-IT scheme.
d. Cost Benefits: The charge is fixed annually, so there is the opportunity
through using the scheme to make savings and achieve “payback” on the
cost. Traditionally, although there are rebates on some waste streams
recycled, it will always cost money to dispose of waste.
e. Support and Expertise: The founder of WARP-IT is based in the North East,
has experience and would be able to support us in the roll out of the scheme
and any issues that arise.
f. Accountability: The website provides Terms and Conditions that exempt
contributors from liability. Through a current trial scheme, terms and
conditions specific to the University agreed by Corporate Governance are
already in place.
g. Scope 3 Emissions: Use of WARP-IT has the potential to reduce Scope 3
emissions for both Purchasing and Waste.
h. Data Capture: WARP-IT can demonstrate savings* made in terms of:
i.
ii.
iii.
iv.
v.
CO2 (KG) saved
Cars off the road for one year
Waste (KG) that has been diverted from landfill
Equivalent Trees Planted
Money Saved
*Figures based on methodologies published on the website.
i.
Reductions in waste generated by the University.
j.
Authorised Users: Users can only register if approved by an Account
Administrator (Super User) for the University. Access can be restricted to
University users.
k. Control over items: For compliance and reputational reasons University
policy is currently not to resell or donate electrical items to third parties.
Anyone trying to dispose of such items via the WARP-It website can be
redirected to dispose of them via the appropriate channels.
l.
Partners: During the trial scheme, the University is currently partners With
Durham County Council, Voluntary and Community Action Sunderland,
Sunderland City Council, Lydia’s House, CHANCE, Hetton IM Church and PC
David Rathband’s Blue Lamp Foundation. This means that when items from
our organization are not claimed internally we can share with others, or we
can potentially claim from them.
Costs and Financial Savings:
1. The Warp-It license costs £1000 p.a. plus vat.
2. The organisation has had a free trial since September 2011, from only 9 listings, two
claims have been made. This has:
a.
b.
c.
d.
Kept one car off the road for a year
Saved 3698kg of CO2
Diverted 421 kgs waste from Landfill
Saved £4087 in purchasing and disposal costs.
3. Case Study by WRAP of Sunderland City Council’s take up of the scheme showed cost
savings of £45,000 in the first year of operation, 9.4 tonnes of waste diverted away
from Landfill and over 24 tonnes of CO2 saved.
4. Northumberland County Council (NCC) spent £78, 641.11 between February and
June 2011 with their furniture supplier. For the same period in 2012 after using
WARP-IT the spend was £16,637.95 – a 79% reduction in costs.
5. If an equivalent saving to NCC could be made on the frameworked furniture contract
through WARP-IT this would equate to a £514, 500 saving over two years.
6. UCL have used Warp-It since July 2012 and made savings of £21,000, 53% of
equipment was lab related.
Roll out and expansion of the scheme:
Phase 1:
1. Rollout – Reinforce with key staff already identified as users, work with Faculties and
Services to promote the website. Use of Facilities Managers contacts for rollout.
2. Building Clearances: I inventory of reusable equipment to be made and placed on
Warp-It for internal or external reuse.
3. Work with FAS: UCL have saved £21,000 since July 2012, 53% of this was on lab
related equipment so there is potential to expand the scheme in Sciences.
Phase 2:
1. Devise Students Union Offer: The SU can register on Warp-It in its own right as a
charity for free. This offers the opportunity to expand the website across the student
base and for students to use the site for sharing and reuse of resource. Promotional
opportunities exist through the magazine. The SU Site could be partnered with the
University site to allow sharing of resource between the University and students.
2. Work with Procurement: Organisations using Warp-It have worked with
Procurement Departments (NCCs Warp-IT scheme was lead by a Procurement
Officer) to stop purchases of new furniture unless they have viewed Warp-It or they
can show there is nothing suitable on the Warp-IT website. This is an area for
development where significant savings can be made.
3. Work with Projects to promote use of Warp-It on projects to reduce disposal costs
on reduce purchasing costs for purchase of furniture on minor projects.
Phase 3:
1. Re-use campaign to be launched through Waste EAG.
2. Explore links to expand the scheme to business connected to the University
3. Review and expand work with Partner Organisations
4. Review the success of the scheme, explore funding and potential of an Intern as a
physical resource for uploading items and promoting the scheme.
Recommendations:
Savings of £4000 during the free trial clearly show the savings that can be made and how
easily payback can be achieved. It is recommended that a license to use Warp-It is
purchased and that the scheme is given a high priority. A small working group should
implement and promote the scheme in the first instance using Facilities contacts and the
EAGs. The scheme should be rolled out through phases 1 -3 detailed above, also taking
advantage of any opportunities that arise to expand the scheme. Employment of an intern
should be investigated if the funding required can be supported by the savings made
through using the scheme.