University Chair Giveaway 2007

The purpose of this event was to highlight the contribution ASAN makes to diverting waste from landfill by offering students free office chairs for their own use. ASAN set up a stall in the University Union and students were all given vouchers to use at our Greenworks warehouse. The event demonstrated the value of recycling and the business that could be generated from recycling.

Mike Swain from ASAN talks about his Enterprise Week 2007 event:

“We asked the university’s permission to set up a stall on the campus in order that we could have a dialogue with students and offer them free chairs while at the same time telling them about diverting waste from landfill through recycling business activity.

The Student Union proved the best conduit for communicating with students and they arranged that we set our stall up in the Union Bar. The event went very well with more than 200 students taking part. After the event a trail of students then made their way to our warehouse to pick up their chairs.

Hopefully apart from the immediate publicity from the event, students will have gained something from the ideas behind the event and will also feel that they have learnt about how one small social enterprise in Wolverhampton works.”

Top tip from Mike

Make sure that you are absolutely clear about what you want partners to do and be clear about why you want them involved. Half understood messages and not particularly well thought out plans can end with people not delivering what you wanted them to deliver.