With a greater focus on the environment, more and more people are looking to buy office furniture that’s sustainable. Yet there is a perception that choosing sustainable office furniture is going to be more costly than your budget will allow. But sustainable office furniture isn’t as expensive as you’d think, and there are a number of reasons why.
It doesn’t have to be brand new
Creating a sustainable office space isn’t just about making sure your furniture is made from wood from sustainable forests or all the materials used are recycled themselves. Sometimes it’s something as simple as using what you’ve already got. Why throw away a piece of perfectly serviceable furniture only to replace it with something brand new? With a bit of TLC, any piece of office furniture can be made to look as good as new at a fraction of the cost of replacing it.
If you’re designing your new office space (or redesigning your current space), existing furniture can be upcycled to fit in with the design of your new office space. Chairs and padded partitions can be reupholstered to match your new colour scheme. We are skilled in repairing and repurposing and will do whatever needs to be done in order to maximise the usefulness of as much of your existing office furniture as possible. In fact, we have so far saved our clients around £1.5m by reusing and repurposing their current furniture rather than advising them to buy brand-new furniture unnecessarily.
Double-up with flexible eco-friendly office furniture
Office design is changing in line with the popularity of remote working. By introducing hybrid working practices, companies are now able to occupy smaller office spaces because there’s no longer a need to provide enough space for all employees to be in the office at the same time. With the need for fewer desks for daily use, you can redesign the space to make it more comfortable and fun. It also makes sense to keep your costs down by having flexible office furniture - rather than have two separate pieces of furniture, you only need one that has a double function. For example, a mobile partition can provide privacy for people working in the office, but with one side of it set up as a whiteboard, you can just wheel it around when you have a meeting or brainstorming session.
Rent your office furniture
In the same way that you lease your company cars, why not think about leasing your office furniture? Without the upfront costs of buying furniture, you can afford to have higher-quality, sustainable office furniture because the costs are spread out. Renting your office furniture also gives you the ability to change your office interior more frequently, keeping the design fresh, your staff motivated and your clients more than impressed! As your old furniture will be repurposed elsewhere, you can rest assured that you’re being as sustainable as it’s possible to be.
Go sustainable with JPA
At JPA, we don’t just pay lip service to sustainability, we live and breathe it. And we’ve won awards for our sustainable approach. We are a certified Carbon Neutral company because we rehome or recycle everything. Nothing is sent to landfill. All the furniture we supply is recyclable, all our packaging is recyclable, and all timber comes from sustainable forests.
If you are planning an office refit and are looking for ways of making your budget go further at the same time as guaranteeing a carbon neutral installation, contact us to find out how we can help.