SSE Celebrates 5 Years at Gratitude with Attitude Friend Raiser

Sustainable Surplus celebrated its fifth anniversary at their Gratitude with Attitude Friend Raiser.  It was a resounding, "We Made It!" cheer from SSE board members.  We were joined by a few donors and friends, as we enjoyed wonderful food, wine and beer at the home of board advisor Bill Conner.  Live music was provided by the Collins Clan Band.

Collins Clan Band

SSE Partners with US Business Council for Sustainable Development

In a key strategic move for both Sustainable Surplus Exchange (SSE) and the US Business Council for Sustainable Development (US BCSD), the organizations have signed a partnership agreement to create a Materials Marketplace in San Diego.

The US BCSD is a member-led 501 (c)(6) nonprofit business association, founded in 1992, that harnesses the power of collaborative projects, platforms and partnerships to develop, deploy and scale solutions to ecosystems, energy, materials and water challenges.

Sustainable Surplus, a 501 (c)(3), based in San Diego,“turns corporate excess into community assets,” according to Executive Director, Sue Prelozni. SSE handles the internal surplus, everything from office supplies and furniture to computers and lab equipment, and redistributes them to schools, nonprofits and start-up organizations.

The Materials Marketplace aims to create a closed-loop, collaborative network of businesses, organizations and entrepreneurs in San Diego County where one organization’s waste becomes another organization’s raw material. In addition to diverting waste from landfills, the recovery activities will generate significant cost savings, energy savings, and create new jobs and business opportunities. 

There are four such Marketplaces located throughout the US – Austin, Detroit, Memphis and Columbus.  The US BCSD targeted San Diego after learning about the parallel mission of SSE to divert still useful product from the landfill. 

“We’re thrilled to be working alongside Sustainable Surplus in this groundbreaking new project,” said Daniel Kietzer, Program Manager for the US BCSD. “Many San Diego businesses and organizations are challenging the traditional take-make-dispose model; the Materials Marketplace is an important enabler to move this new circular thinking into action.”

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SSE Partners with NETGEAR to Give Back-Packs to Homeless Youth

It was a special day of giving to underserved youth in San Diego North County, readying them for school.   Thanks to the generosity and thoughtfulness of the employees at NETGEAR, at least 50 children are prepared to go back to school with a new backpack full of the necessary supplies.

NETGEAR chooses different areas of philanthropic opportunities to support the community throughout the year, according to Francesca Vanderloo, office coordinator.  Their focus for this campaign:  children in need.  Through their research, they decided to utilize the School-Tools Backpacks by World Vision for their outreach. “We felt that the homeless and foster children would benefit the most from receiving a School-Tools backpack filled with school supplies,” said Vanderloo.

New Haven ED Chris Kates, SSE CEO Sue Prelozni with
with Francesca Vanderloo and Katherine Morda of NETGEAR

NETGEAR’s staff created an event for their employees to assemble backpacks with school supplies for donation to local non-profits that focused on helping homeless and foster school age children.

The exchanges were arranged by local nonprofit Sustainable Surplus, whose mission is to repurpose supplies to those in need at local schools and nonprofits.  “When our friends at NETGEAR reached out regarding this special project, we were more than happy to help them identify a few local nonprofits whose constituents truly fit their purpose,” said SSE director Sue Prelozni.

Together they focused on three nonprofits:  Petra House, New Haven Youth and Family Services and Stand Up for Kids.

Sue (SSE) with Carlton Brown, ED of Petra House
and Francesca and Katherine (NETGEAR)

The timing was perfect as school was about to begin and the children could start the school year with tools to help them be successful in the classroom.  “The best part of the School-Tools Backpack is the hand written note it includes with words of encouragement, prepared by our employees who assembled the backpacks,” said Vanderloo.  She added, “It is with great gratitude to Sue Prelozni and Sustainable Surplus, that we successfully distributed 50 backpacks to these organizations.” 

For information about corporate outreach to local nonprofits, contact sue@sustainablesurplus.org