Extending the Useful Life of Furniture Assets through Remanufacturing

A Truly Sustainable Solution

All the recent emphasis in sustainability in the office assets management sector had me a bit baffled, because frankly, for the last 26 years, sustainability has been foundational to our business.

As a preferred partner to clients in both the decommissioning and liquidation of office assets, as well as the provision of furniture for new office installations, we were “green” before “green” was a value proposition.  Well before sustainability and ESG were the benchmark brand promises our clients were most concerned about communicating to investors, customers and all their stakeholders, our processes, products and services have been grounded in environmentally sound and pragmatic processes, that deliver projects on-time, on budget and verifiable as sustainable and “green”.

For The Furniture X-Change this is nothing new.

Since we like to keep ourselves honest, we benchmarked the definition of ESG with a credible source, McKinsey, to see where office asset management fits.

 In this recent article , McKinsey lays out “What is ESG? Environmental, social, and governance (ESG) criteria are useful in measuring a company’s progress toward achieving social goals in addition to creating shareholder value.”

Among the five key ways that ESG can add value McKinsey highlights two:

“Cost reductions. Good ESG execution can combat rising operating expenses, including raw-material costs and the true cost of water or carbon. McKinsey has found a strong correlation for companies in various sectors between resource efficiency and financial performance. . . .

Investment and asset optimization. Well-executed ESG can strengthen investment returns by allocating capital to more promising and sustainable opportunities, like renewables and waste reduction.”

Making Sustainability Real Regarding Office Furniture

There are two sides of the sustainability coin that facilities and real-estate managers need to be most cognizant of when engaging with an office assets solution partner: one is decommissioning and liquidation, and the other is acquisition.

Let’s take them separately.

Sustainable decommissioning and liquidation.

Table stakes for any partner you engage when decommissioning a leased property is that they can tick the following boxes authentically, with verifiable reporting:

1.              Your furniture assets must be removed from any lease you are vacating, inventoried, and disposed of in an environmentally sound manner. You want verifiable chain of custody records that indicate how assets are being disposed of.

2.              For furniture that will not be reallocated to a client's new premises, liquidated for resale or donated for re-distribution by charitable organizations, landfill diversion is paramount.

3.              Inevitably there will be some assets that cannot be stored or re-used. Your partner must provide proof that these were disposed of through clean burn or sustainable metal reclamation processes. But this is the last resort for the disposition of your assets.

The most sustainable solution is to extend the useful life of a furniture asset through re-manufacture – so that regardless of whether it is re-allocated to your next leased workplace facility, sold, or donated the asset can live on “as new”.

The Furniture X-Change is unique in the industry providing end-to-end sustainable office asset management solutions, INCLUDING our own remanufacturing facility. We restore high-end pre-owned workstations, desk and seating assets, to “as new” conditions, fully warranted under our own roof.

Sustainable Acquisition of Office Furniture for New Premises

Not all office asset management projects are solely focused on contraction. As leases on new workplace configurations are built out to meet the demand for more functional hybrid office environments, new furniture assets are inevitably needed.

Facilities managers have choices.

1.              Buy New.  The challenge with this approach is the long lead times, “rack rate” costs, and a misalignment with ESG goals.  Remember the McKinsey definition?  “Combat rising operating expenses” and “allocating capital to more promising and sustainable opportunities”?  There may not be a lot that the facilities manager can do in the furniture acquisition mode to contribute to ESG goals. But “buying new”, especially to meet expensive corporate design standards probably isn’t the ideal tactic.

2.              Re-purpose and re-use. If there is a sufficient inventory of usable furniture from your previously leased facility that is not damaged, or “old and tired”, re-allocation is ideal.  But the best option is for a partner who has decommissioned your vacated space to re-manufacture and restore the furniture you own, re-installing it in your new workplace premises. 

3.              Buy re-stored, re-manufactured, pre-owned furniture assets that meets your needs. Everyday citizens are committing to active sustainable choices, re-purposing everything from fashion to home furnishings, rather than simply buying new. And facilities managers now have viable options to do the same, if their partner can guarantee convenient access to large inventories of re-manufactured furniture in “as new” , warranted condition. Not ever partner can meet this objective with a truly sustainable acquisition solution, for pennies on the dollar of buying new, delivered on time for your newest occupancy.

Here again, The Furniture X-Change has the largest, in-house re-manufacturing and resale operation in the country, providing access to fully warranted, re-stored and re-furbished office furniture, available when you need it, at a fraction of the cost of new, compliant with your most unique office design standards, down to color, fabric and finishing.

That’s what we call pragmatic sustainability.  If this makes sense to you, we would love to discuss how our remanufacturing operation can help you meet those ESG goals authentically, on time and on budget. Contact us at inquiry@tfxfurniture.com to set up a call.