Giving is Good - How Freecycle could help your business

Every organisation has a room filled with old equipment and stock - usually, more than one! These places are filled with the things that "someone" will "some day" maybe actually do something with, be it sell, scrap or use. In the mean time, they're a great place for gathering dust and creating "If I'm not back in 10 minutes, send in a search party" jokes.

There's always the temptation to keep things "just in case", resulting in overflowing stock rooms and cupboards. Be ruthless with your "junk" - are you keeping things for purely emotional reasons, or because they actually have a tangible value for your organisation? Consider doing a kaizen-style "red-tag" exercise to identify what's actually useful (and being used) and what's just taking up space.

Once you've identified what's still useful to your organisation, you know what could potentially be disposed of without affecting operations. The traditional approach to disposing of "junk" is to hire a skip and let someone else deal with it, but there are good reasons why an organisation may want to take a more involved role.

It can be included as part of your CSR policy

People are becoming more concerned about how "green" an organisation is, so being able to say exactly what happens to your old equipment and stock can help reassure them. Including hard data as to the amount of stuff whose disposal has been actively managed in your CSR report (and maybe include some significant examples of this management, like donations to charities or schools,) would provide further evidence as to your organisation's commitment to ethical practices.

Donating old equipment or stock to local schools, charities or interest groups can improve your organisation's image in the area. They may be used directly by the recipient (like, for example, donations of computer or other equipment) or could be used for fundraising by the recipient (old stock, or even just printer cartridges and used stamps). You may be amazed at what some people would be eager to accept and could use!

It can improve (or build) a business relationship

With the current economic climate making it hard for businesses to survive, giving away old equipment may help your clients (or even suppliers!) stay afloat. Remember: these items have no value to you, so you're not losing anything really!

Helping out someone with whom you already have a relationship can only strengthen it - you're making direct deposits into your "emotional bank account", which should make dealing with them in the future easier. This sort of gifting can (informally) bring organisations closer together.

Giving to someone with whom you don't have a relationship can also be beneficial - you're raising the awareness of your organisation, potentially to someone who has never heard of you before, and broadcasting your ethical values. Even if they don't use your products/services in the future, you've made them aware of your organisation, and they're likely to pass on their positive opinion if asked by someone in their network of contacts.

It's really, really easy to do!

The hardest part is letting people know what you're giving away - and that's not hard at all! It only takes one person to take responsibility for managing it, and it shouldn't take up too much of their time.

Creating listings for items on sites such as The Freecycle Network (www.freecycle.org), Oodle (www.oodle.com) or craigslist is quick and easy to do - and free.

Once the items are posted, it's just a matter of waiting for responses, and deciding on who to give the things to. In many cases, the recipient would come and collect the item from you, at an agreed date and time – all you need to do is make sure that the item's ready for them.

In the same way productivity experts encourage you to de-clutter your working environment to increase personal productivity, de-cluttering your organisation can also improve productivity. Sorting through these storage areas provides an opportunity to organise and properly inventory them. Disposing of unneeded items in storage frees up storage space, makes audit and inventory checks quicker and easier, and allows the items still useful to your organisation easier to find. Most importantly, however, you are reducing the environmental impact of your organisation, by knowing exactly what resources you have available and making sure that everything is being put to use (either by your organisation or by someone else)

This is a guest post by Richard Wallman, chief technical officer at Freecycle.