As one of the UK’s top retailers of sustainable office furniture, our business was built with sustainability at its heart from day one, but what do we really mean by that?
Office Resale began life as a seller of sustainable office furniture in 2009. Office refurbishments had traditionally meant an ‘out with the old and in with the new’ approach, with little consideration given to environmental impact. We were determined to challenge this idea of office furniture as short-term and disposable.
We knew back then that high quality refurbished office furniture, integrating reuse and recycling, could deliver improved working environments, significant cost savings and a greatly reduced carbon footprint. In the years since, we have been able to support many businesses trying to prioritise corporate social responsibility by providing them with quality refurbished office chairs and desks instead of new ones.
Benefits of sustainable office furniture
We knew back in 2009 that high quality refurbished office furniture, integrating reuse and recycling, could deliver improved working environments, significant cost savings and a greatly reduced carbon footprint. In the years since, we have been able to support many businesses trying to prioritise corporate social responsibility by providing them with quality refurbished office chairs and desks instead of new ones.
Sustainability has grown massively in importance – not just amongst businesses, but for employees, investors, consumers, the public in general and other stakeholders. Terms like the climate emergency, the circular economy, biodiversity, social value and community action are no longer buzzwords, but something at the forefront of all our minds. But with sustainability such a broad term these days, what does it really mean to Office Resale in practice?
Our business has grown and evolved since those early days. We became part of Premier Workplace and then Crown Workspace in 2018 and are now firmly established as a key part of their sustainable workplace services. We sell thousands of pieces of sustainable office furniture every year, helping make a tangible difference to the sustainability of countless workspaces and home offices.
We have independently been refurbishing and repairing Herman Miller furniture since 2011 and have earned a longstanding reputation in office furniture remanufacturing and refurbishment.
This industry-leading partnership puts us in the unique position to ensure that our Herman Miller products are refurbished to the highest standards, with genuine spare parts, guaranteeing the performance and quality of the Herman Miller furniture we sell.
Like every product, furniture contains embodied carbon (the carbon emitted in producing it). Buying or leasing refurbished office furniture rather than opting for new helps extend its lifecycle and prevent the production of more embodied carbon. This helps lower a business’ or individual’s overall carbon footprint – one of the most important things we can do when it comes to helping the environment. Buying refurbished office furniture has a wide range of benefits when it comes to improving sustainability.
Financial sustainability is another a major benefit of buying refurbished office furniture. It enables businesses to get their hands on high quality furniture that they may not have been otherwise able to afford, meaning a better use of budget and greater comfort for staff. On the other side of the coin, selling office furniture to us means you get money for unwanted office furniture rather than having to pay to have it taken away.
Buying or leasing used furniture reduces other environmental impacts as well. For instance, refurbished office furniture has a much lower water footprint than brand new equivalents. Buying refurbished also keeps perfectly good desks and chairs out of the waste stream.
Office Resale provide social value by making quality furniture available to those who might not be able to afford the same quality new. The expertise and time required to refurbish furniture to ‘good as new’ standard also helps to create more jobs and skilled employment.
This approach to buying and selling keeps office furniture in the circular economy which is at the heart of what sustainability means to Office Resale.
The circular economy is centred around designing out waste and pollution, keeping resources in use for as long as possible and regenerating our natural systems.
For the workplace, this means using less and sharing more. It also means making sure that what you do use has been sourced sustainably, has the potential to be reused, repurposed or recycled, rather than simply becoming waste. Enabling reuse is at the core of the circular economy, and where better to start than with buying, leasing or selling used office furniture?
Office Resale is the office furniture retail channel for Crown Workspace. We play a key role in these wider sustainable workplace solutions: buying, selling and leasing office furniture to support large and small businesses as well as individuals on a mission to be more sustainable.
We enable clients to change the way they purchase furniture and move towards a circular office. We help them understand the differences in buying refurbished desks and chairs compared to new, and how to specify refurbished furniture for larger projects.
Our service is closely integrated with the award winning Renew Centre, the UK’s leading independent commercial facility dedicated to remanufacturing, refurbishing and repairing desks, chairs and other furniture. In this state-of-the-art facility, a dedicated and skilled team return office furniture to shop floor condition, either directly for clients or for us to stock in our shop.
Office Resale also supports donation of furniture; chairs, desks and other office furniture that have no resale value may still have a social value. As well as ensuring these items stay in use for as long as possible, this sustainable office furniture enables charities, schools and social enterprises to focus their resources on frontline services, helping those in need and supporting local communities.
So, to us at Office Resale, sustainability means playing a proud role in keeping office furniture in the circular economy and helping our clients apply sustainable principles in the workplace.
It means reducing the wider environmental impacts associated with office furniture and also providing social sustainability benefits including job creation and skilled work. It means being part of a responsible business, Crown Workspace, and part of wider sustainable workplace solutions that help to reduce carbon emissions, meet climate change targets and address the wider sustainability agenda.
