Overall Rating Gold - expired
Overall Score 71.76
Liaison Mike Versteege
Submission Date Oct. 10, 2014
Executive Letter Download

STARS v1.2

University of Alberta
OP-T2-38: Materials Exchange

Status Score Responsible Party
Complete 0.25 / 0.25 Phil Webb
Distribution Manager
Supply Management Services
"---" indicates that no data was submitted for this field

Does the institution have a surplus department or formal office supplies exchange program that facilitates reuse of materials?:
Yes

A brief description of the program:

All items purchased by the University of Alberta are the property of the institution. Departments are required to manage their assets appropriately by ensuring that all goods, once they have completed their useful purposes for the department, are available for use by other departments on campus.

Departments are to contact the surplus assets department, obtain a surplus disposal declaration number and submit a completed surplus form. Supply Management Services (SMS) – Surplus Operations picks up all items declared surplus and brings them to the central warehouse.

After items are brought to the warehouse, a sort is completed and it is determined if the goods can be reused on-campus or should be disposed of off-campus. Items that still have value on-campus are kept within the warehouse while an appropriate home is found. In most cases, the equipment is transferred at no cost to the other department.

Goods that cannot be reused on campus are disposed of in a number of different ways. Goods that have value but are unusable on-campus are offered for sale on different websites and removed from campus by buyers. Electronic waste is taken to a local, provincially-approved recycler for processing. All metal is separated and removed to a metal recycler; batteries, plastics and wood products are removed to recyclers for reuse. Items are also donated to charities, schools and other organizations. Many office supplies are reused on campus including toner cartridges and stationary products. All waste is minimized and very few items are sent to the landfill.

SMS hosts a listserve that UAlberta employees can subscribe to. It acts as in internal exchange network for goods between departments.

Website: http://www.sms.ualberta.ca/en/DistributionServices/EquipmentServices.aspx


The website URL where information about the program is available:
Data source(s) and notes about the submission:
---

The information presented here is self-reported. While AASHE staff review portions of all STARS reports and institutions are welcome to seek additional forms of review, the data in STARS reports are not verified by AASHE. If you believe any of this information is erroneous or inconsistent with credit criteria, please review the process for inquiring about the information reported by an institution or simply email your inquiry to stars@aashe.org.