#ShopCampusFirst

New “swap shelves”, a reuse initiative led by Anna Gomes, PhD Candidate in Earth System Science, and Sustainable Stanford Living Lab Fellow in the Responsible Purchasing Program, are popping up across campus–making it easy to share supplies, cut waste, and save money, one shelf at a time. 

Swap, reuse, repeat in Green Earth Sciences

New “Office Swap” and “Lab Swap” shelves in the Green Earth Sciences Building offer a simple way for the Earth Sciences community to reuse surplus office and lab supplies instead of sending them to storage or worse, the landfill. This initiative creates an easy, low-barrier system for sharing unused items that still have plenty of life left in them. 

Reuse is one of the most impactful things we can do to support sustainability, responsible purchasing, and zero waste on campus. The #shopcampusfirst tagline, coined by Gomes, helps change the default from buying new.

“This pilot is about making sustainability practical. By keeping materials circulating within our community, we’re reducing waste, saving resources, and supporting research in a really tangible way,” – Anna Gomes, PhD Candidate, Earth System Science, & Sustainable Stanford Living Lab Fellow

Green Earth Sciences is not the only building where swap shelves have been set up. Other buildings include Y2E2 (the Jerry Yang and Akiko Yamazaki Environment and Energy Building), Environmental Health & Safety, and the Biomedical Innovations Building.

Tech swap–and beyond

The swap shelves are not limited to office and lab supplies. A new “Tech Swap” pilot launched by Gomes and now run by the building’s facilities and operations manager, Vinny Toth, has already redistributed more than 30 pieces of equipment in a single quarter, reducing e-waste while lowering departmental costs. 

For Toth, the impact goes beyond the numbers.

“Our goal is to help shift the mindset to a ‘reuse first’ process, instead of buying first,”
– Vinny Toth, Facilities and Operations Manager, Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability

Toth shares that he has received very positive feedback from grad students to faculty seeking affordable lab tech. The program has expanded beyond monitors and keyboards to items like lamps, fans, and even a robot vacuum.

These initiatives, from a single shelf to an entire building, demonstrate how reuse can be both simple and scalable–directly supporting Stanford’s zero waste goals while making sustainability an easy, everyday practice.

How to start “shopping campus” first

If you already have a swap shelf set up in your building, bring supplies to add to the shelves, browse for items you need, and complete the short survey to help track reuse across the building. 

If you’re interested in establishing swap shelves in your building, contact responsiblepurchasing@stanford.edu. For year-round swapping access the Reuse Slack channel and ReUse website. That box of pipette tips you’ve been saving “just in case” since 2019 can finally have a home! It’s a simple step towards a more circular, resource-efficient campus.