Temple University
IN-26: Innovation C

Temple Surplus is a program that gives new life to the university’s retired assets and property. When an item is no longer actively used by a university department, school or college, Temple Surplus makes it available for re-use utilizing an online store. This helps to reduce Temple’s waste stream and maximize the value of tuition dollars by limiting new purchases and generating revenue from retired equipment. Affordability is central to Temple’s mission. The university works hard to maximize its resources to ensure that it gets the most out of every tuition dollar. In 2016, the university adopted a central policy that governs how university departments, schools and colleges manage assets and property that are no longer actively used. It establishes procedures for extracting additional value from those retired materials, and tasks the Computer Recycling Center and the Temple Surplus program with managing the collection, re-use and re-sale of the items. Temple Surplus serves as a clearinghouse of all types of equipment, including, but not limited to, furniture, lab equipment, clinical materials, and facilities products. University departments can request removal of surplus items for free. Items received by the Temple Surplus program will first be made available for redistribution within the university community for 15 days. If the item is not claimed internally, it will be sold via online auction. If the item is successfully sold, the Temple Surplus program will split the revenue with the donating department with sales over $500. Surplus items that are not sold are made available to non-profit organizations for free. Temple Surplus publishes an annual report and tracks its inventory through an asset management database. Data reported annually (measurable outcomes) includes: types of collected material, number of assets received and redistributed, weight of materials diverted from the waste stream, program revenue and memberships.

Media links http://www.philly.com/philly/news/new_jersey/surplus-property-programs-at-temple-penn-state-drexel-20170530.html https://news.temple.edu/news/2017-05-16/surplus-property-program