2015-12: IRN’s Year in Photos – A Selection
Photos, photos, photos. Here’s a selection of project snapshots from 2015. It seems we handled everything under the sun, and everywhere under the sun – and the rain, and the snow, and the fog. Once again, as a new year begins, we’d like to thank all of you we’ve worked with, for making our work possible.
2015-12: Making a Difference, in the U.S. and Around the World
We never receive as much feedback or see as many photos as we’d like to of IRN surplus installed and in use. So this is a small, small selection from 2015: from Somalia, Liberia, Micronesia, Vietnam, Jamaica, and a charter school in Washington State.
2014-12: Thank You!! To All of You Who Have Made a Difference in So Many Lives
From all of us at IRN, to all of you we have had enjoyed working with in 2014, thank you for your commitment to making a difference, and for giving us the privilege of working with you.
2014-09: Art Institute of Philadelphia
This was a big crazy project with Graebel and CBRE. Seventeen floors. Downtown Philly. Two phases, two weeks apart. Elevators that went on strike when they felt like it. By City mandate, we could not start to load before 6:00 PM. Graebel assigned two crews: one to break down and stage during the day, the second to load each night. Starting at 6:00, we loaded three or four trailers a night over ten weeks, a total of 29 trailers, and usually got to bed by midnight.
2013-10: Why Reuse Matters: Before
Why does reuse matter? Here are some photos of schools and communities before IRN surplus has been delivered and put to use.
2013-10: Why Reuse Matters: After
Why does reuse matter? Here are some of the same schools and communities, with IRN Surplus installed and being used.
2013-08: American University Tenley Campus
IRN worked with the Whiting-Turner Contracting Company at AmericanUniversity’s Tenley Campus to remove more than 2,500 pieces of surplus residential and classroom furniture in advance of renovation and demolition.
2013-08: Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital
This project recovered more than 80 tons of surplus over five phases, including patient beds, physical therapy, rehabilitation, and exercise equipment, pharmacy and laboratory equipment, and administrative furnishings. Spaulding’s surplus was provided to recipient organizations in four different countries.
2013-07: Westfield State University
Westfield State and the Massachusetts State College Building Authority have been managing surplus through IRN for over ten years. In 2013, Westfield State shipped a total of 2,423 pieces of dorm furniture equaling 115 tons, which were provided to charitable recipients in Jamaica, Honduras, and close to home in Worcester, MA.
2013-07: Sheraton Boston Hotel
IRN filled two shipping containers with more than 600 pieces of stored surplus from the Sheraton Boston. The surplus was provided to communities in El Salvador through IRN partner Food For The Poor and the local nonprofit Fundacion Nuevos Horizontes (New Horizons Foundation).
2013-06: University of Central Missouri
UCM has used IRN’s Surplus Program since 2010. In June 2013 UCM passed a major milestone, with more than a million pounds of surplus provided to charity through IRN.
2013-06: University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
2013 was the University of Illinois’ first year working with IRN, but their leadership team led by Melissa Marriott was well versed in large scale move outs. The UI projects were spread out over three phases in May and June, and filled nearly 20 trailers with usable surplus.
2013-06: Deerfield Academy
Deerfield has used IRN services for school furnishings, attic clean outs, fixed assets (cabinets, doors, etc.) from construction project, and even athletic equipment and musical instruments. In addition to larger projects, Deerfield maintains a permanent storage trailer where small quantities of surplus are deposited on a regular basis, and trucked to IRN for reuse when the trailer is full.
2013-01: Tahanto Regional Middle/High School
In January, 2013, the Berlin-Boylston Regional School District (Mass.) contributed over 1,200 pieces of surplus furniture to help outfit St. Georges College, a K-12 school in Kingston, Jamaica.
2012-08: Howard University
From August 1 to 3 IRN and Olympia Moving filled nine shipping containers for communities in Guatemala and El Salvador. The following week IRN and the crew returned to fill another three containers with mattresses for Nicaragua, and a final container of furniture for the MiddlebridgeSchool in Rhode Island.
2012-07: E-Waste Disposal Around the World
Why we do what we do. This slide show depicts what happens to our used electronic equipment when it is “recycled” by folks who, for the sake of a few bucks, are content to dump our environmental problems into the laps of the world’s poor.
2012-06: Catholic University of America
Over three days, IRN and a crew from Complete Moving Systems filled six shipping containers with more than 1,600 pieces of furniture, which was shipped by IRN partner Food for the Poor to community development projects in Guyana, South America. Thanks to New England Woodcraft for bringing IRN into this project.
2012-05: Columbia University
ColumbiaUniversity is a regular user of IRN’s Surplus Program. In May 2012 Columbia filled five shipping containers with furnishings from a half dozen different buildings on campus. The surplus was shipped to community development projects in El Salvador.
2012-05: Boston University
This BU project filled more than a dozen shipping containers over four days in May 2012. Since starting to work with IRN, BU has provided more than 1.5 million pounds of surplus to charity.
2012-05: University of Vermont
Refreshing two dormitories, the University of Vermont asked for IRN’s assistance in removing and finding an outlet for about 1,400 pieces of dorm furniture.
2012-05: University of Pennsylvania, Annenberg School of Communication
Renovating its main building, the Annenberg School had fourteen custom-constructed offices to be emptied and reconstructed. IRN worked with Advance Transportation to disassemble and ship the offices to a community development project in Nicaragua.
2012-05: Skidmore College
IRN loaded four containers of dorm furniture in May in advance of a renovation project, and returned a few weeks later to load out several truckloads of classroom furnishings.
2012-04: American University
AU gutted and refinished student lounges and study areas on seven floors of its Letts Hall dormitory, and replaced some 180 desk chairs.
2012-03: Stow Elementary School
This late winter project recovered everything needed to outfit a school environment: desks for students and teachers, seating, work tables, art tables, school supplies, and more – all provided to Haiti to assist with long-duration disaster recovery and development projects.
2012-02: Wellesley High School
Over three days, IRN filled 25 shipping containers with more than 5,000 pieces of surplus from the old Wellesley High School, which were provided to St. Georges College, a K-12 school in Kingston, Jamaica.
2011-08: Story of a Sink, San Mateo County, CA
We were able to follow this sink from its grave in a shuttered county facility in California to its rebirth in a Salvation Army school for the blind in Jamaica. In addition to the sink, we shipped solar hot water panels, other kitchen equipment, chairs, desks and tables.
2011-06: Joplin Tornado Relief
Within a week of the Joplin tornado, IRN organized contributions of beds, mattresses, bedding, and microfridges from BostonUniversity and the University of Central Missouri. Staples provided trucking and labor to help distribute and unload these items, delivered and ready to use less than two weeks after the tornado.
2011-06: Corporate Offices, Virginia
IRN has worked with Steelcase dealer Arbee Associates on more than a dozen corporate cleanouts in eight states from Maryland to California. This Saturday project filled two shipping containers with excellent quality office furnishings which were provided to a charity in El Salvador.
2011-05: Saint Joseph’s University
IRN worked with Bellia Office Furniture to provide about 375 pieces of library furniture to the Christian Appalachian Project to support community development in Kentucky and West Virginia.
2009-08: Reality House, Columbia University
This project combined deconstruction, reuse, and recycling to recover more than 90% of the waste left behind in a vacant drug rehabilitation clinic in Harlem.