Sustainable Surplus Wins Award for Small Business

Oct 16, 2015 – Sustainable Surplus Exchange (SSE) won the Small Business of the Year in the “Community Impact” category at the Carlsbad Chamber of Commerce awards event.  Several hundred small business owners, community leaders and governmental representatives joined in the celebration held today at the Carlsbad Sheraton Resort.

SSE had been nominated in three categories:  Community Impact, Cornerstone and Woman-Owned or Founded business.  “That’s a first,” commented Chamber president, Ted Owen, when he called their CEO, Sue Prelozni to tell her SSE was a finalist.  The Chamber awards recognize the accomplishments and entrepreneurship of small business owners – the backbone of our economy representing 99.7 percent of all employers in the country.

SSE Board Director Aaron Brooks with Sue Prelozni, CEO

Sustainable Surplus was founded by Ms. Prelozni and launched in 2011. She recognized a need to manage the fall-out of the biotechnology industry’s constant flux – mergers, acquisitions, drug failures, depleted funding. As a result, thousands of still-useful assets were left behind for disposal. Resellers were only buying capital assets. Prelozni designed an innovative donation channel to redistribute left-over assets to fulfill the growing needs of struggling nonprofits, schools and start-ups.

“This has been quite an experience – a lot of passion mixed in with hard work and faith,” commented Prelozni.  “SSE has been blessed by the support of many committed people who volunteer their time to achieve the mission of building a sustainable community.”

SSE has benefited more than 30,000 teachers, students, nonprofit staff and beneficiaries, and start-up entrepreneurs throughout San Diego County.  Of the 400 organizations SSE has supported, more than 10 percent are in Carlsbad.  Today, 200 companies have engaged in sustainable practices and have donated, not disposed, $1.7 million of still usable assets to the program.  As a result, SSE helped divert 374,000 pounds of items from the landfills.

SSE is now in a position to expand its outreach and impact and will be in need of additional warehouse space.  “As the social responsibility of local companies grows, more assets are being donated. Our distribution efforts are doubling and we will need to hire more people to support the community organizations,” Prelozni explained.

SSE Board Advisor Sandy Atkinson wth Sue Prelozni, CEO

The theme for today’s event was “Rising Tides,” based on the idiom "a rising tide lifts all boats," coined by John F Kennedy.  It describes the idea that when an economy is performing well, all people will benefit from it. The idiom is actually from the New England regional chamber of commerce.