The sustainable Warwick scheme helping staff to reuse furniture
If you no longer had use for a piece of Warwick furniture, what would you do with it? Did you know there's an internal 'swap shop' scheme for University-owned furniture - a way for you to advertise old or unwanted items while also browsing for the pieces you do need?
It's called Warwick Swap, and this Coventry Green Week (4 to 8 March) we spoke to Vicky Hill (Interior Design, Furniture and Equipment Manager for Estates) to learn more about it.
Hi Vicky. Tell us a little bit about your role at Warwick.
"I manage the Interior Design, Furniture and Equipment team (IDFE) - our purpose is to help Warwick provide first-class, inclusive spaces for its community through innovative, thoughtful furniture design and equipment-purchasing.
Sustainability plays a big part in what we do, particularly when we re-use furniture on campus. Re-using furniture has environmental benefits, as we know, but it also results in huge savings for Warwick. In fact, our furniture re-use across campus over the past 18 months has saved the University over £500,000 compared to the cost of buying new."
For those who haven’t heard of it or used it, what is Warwick Swap?
"Warwick Swap is an internal 'swap shop' for University-owned items of day-to-day furniture. It's a place for departments to advertise their redundant furniture and see what's available around campus before looking to buy new, which should be the last resort. The IDFE team also uses it to advertise items of furniture that have been returned to us from various projects on campus.
Good quality furniture - no budget spend!"
Warwick Swap has been updated for 2024 – tell us about this.
"Warwick Swap has been an integral part of the furniture re-use process for years, but it was in desperate need of a revamp due to an archaic, unsupported web platform resulting in a 'clunky' system. Updating Warwick Swap was an obvious next step - we wanted a more user-friendly platform which seamlessly integrated with my team's systems and inventories.
The updated Warwick Swap had a 'soft launch' in December and has already helped colleagues to re-home a whopping 103 items of furniture, compared to fewer than 10 items in the months before its revamp. The site is even available in app form!"
How does Warwick Swap help sustainability at Warwick?
"The University's Way to Sustainable strategy makes a commitment to 'Reduce the total volume of waste produced by Warwick and, if that’s not possible, reuse and recycle.' Warwick Swap is making a direct contribution to this goal, with meaningful reductions in the amount of furniture going to waste and, crucially, helping to avoid the need to buy new items.
This approach has multiple environmental benefits, including preventing plastic pollution and minimising the carbon impact of furniture throughout its lifecycle. Every item we buy has a carbon footprint associated with its manufacture; the less we buy and the more we make the most of what we already have, the lower our carbon emissions will be."
What’s been the most interesting or exciting items you’ve seen swapped using this platform?
"Over the years we've seem some interesting items posted, which haven't necessarily stuck to the 'furniture' remit! These were removed before they could be swapped...
In terms of exciting furniture items, I'd say it'd have to be some original Fritz Hansen chairs. These are design classics, and it was brilliant to see them still going strong and looking great - they were bought decades ago, when Humanities was first built in the 1970s and 80s!"