Food for Thought: Circular Economy
This month as we celebrate Earth Day, our food for thought takes a pragmatic look at the “circular economy” and sustainable practices in office furniture management, not only as being good for the planet, but good for your CFO’s bottom line as well.
First, let’s look at how furniture management fits into the circular economy, in this case as defined by Deloitte:
“Circular systems adhere to three recognized principles:
Design out waste and pollution
Circulate products and materials in a way that preserves value
Regenerate nature”
If we start with this as a guiding principle, your objectives in office furniture management should be to extend the useful life of any asset you own through reuse.
Pragmatically this means that the inventory of furniture you own as tenants ideally should follow you when you vacate one leased space and move to another.
What if your inventory is too worn out for reallocation and reuse, or not suitable for your new workplace configuration? As your decommissioning partner, TFX can remanufacture and refurbish your furniture, including remanufacturing cubicles to fit smaller footprints in your new spaces.
We're among the nation's top remanufacturers for high-end office furniture brands such as Herman Miller, Knoll, Steelcase, and Haworth. We offer warranties on functionality that match those of the original manufacturers, lasting up to three years! Our in-house team manages every step of upgrading and extending the lifespan of your furniture, including its reinstallation at your new locations.
Now let’s think about your options in the circular economy to acquire additional furniture items needed for any new or differently configured workplace.
Although your CSR teams are focused on meeting sustainability metrics, your CFO is also seeking the most cost-effective solutions for purchasing the items required for any facility build-out.
The most sustainable solution is purchasing remanufactured furniture for reuse. And you are in luck! Given our extensive liquidation operations, we have visibility into availability of furniture changing hand from our clients nationwide. This allows us to operate as a highly efficient marketplace for assets that decommissioning clients cannot reallocate, which we then deliver for resale.
Our Client, Tom Trocola-Barone, Senior Manager, Office Operations & Experience of global snack manufacturer KIND, put it this way when he commented in our Pragmatic Guide to Office Asset Management (which you can access here)
“Why buy brand new furniture when you can be sustainable, save money and not sacrifice quality? If you are on a budget, you’ll get much more longevity out of buying high-quality used furniture that has been restored versus new low-quality furniture, (something you buy from your office supply company who happens to sell their ‘exclusive’ furniture brand).”
You might opt to buy new, low-quality furniture at low prices, but the false economics of this strategy become apparent quite rapidly.
The prestigious brands mentioned earlier, whose products we remanufacture and refurbish, incorporate the most sustainable materials and processes to guarantee recyclability in their newly manufactured furniture. When you purchase these brands through resale, you're starting with a certified greener product right from the start. This is unlike lower quality off-brand items you might obtain through a discount retailer, which are often manufactured without any "green" assurances or certifications.
Lower quality often translates to reduced reliability, shorter functional lifespan, and minimal to no warranty coverage. Opting for low-quality, non-branded furniture items might seem like the cheapest solution initially, but the need for faster replacements due to breakage or decreased functionality can offset any perceived savings. Furthermore, these items are often not refurbishable due to their manufacturing methods. At TFX, we enhance manufacturers' warranties by three years for the high-end furniture items and systems we remanufacture and resell. This additional warranty period is an important factor to consider when calculating costs.
If you have corporate design standards for style, color, finish, and preferred manufacturer’s products, when you fill in with low quality/cost items, you can’t customize them to match and deliver a cohesive build out, the way you can with our remanufactured items. Can you put a price on workspaces that are designed and outfitted sustainably, that deliver the optimal employee experience? Perhaps not in dollars and cents. But as a certain credit card company would say, as companies are challenged to entice workers back to the office, employee satisfaction is “priceless”!
Undeniably, buying “new” is not the way to be part of the “circular economy”. Buying remanufactured furniture to fill “new needs”, on the other hand, is the perfect formula to be green, and cost-effective!
Give us a shout at inquiry@tfxfurniture.com to help you complete the equation!