Reuse at Leeds

The University of Leeds has been a sector-leader in reuse for nearly 10 years. The Reuse site allows departments to share their surplus items internally, create wishlists, set up notifications and even ask to loan items in a way that is more cost efficient and environmentally friendly than disposal.   Through a combination of approaches, this scheme has changed the way the University operates, including a review of internal procurement processes, the introduction of new standards and procedures, working with purchasing consortia to develop new national tenders for the reuse and refurbishment of surplus furniture stock, directly linking with local, national and international charities and training sessions for all purchasing staff. All of this work is centred around our sector-leading online platform ‘Reuse@Leeds’, launched in 2009, which was the first system to successfully address this problem in the sector.  This has saved literally millions of pounds at the University, with over £500,000 (or 440 tonnes of CO2 or 124 tonnes in weight) being saved in the last 12 months alone!

More details of this reuse@leeds site is available here - http://sustainability.leeds.ac.uk/reuse/