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The Environmental Benefits
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We all ‘feel’ that reusing office furniture is the right thing to do. Reusing seems better than throwing away and buying new. From the perspective of waste reduction it clearly is. However, there are concerns that the energy to needed transport the reused furniture around the country and remanufacture/refurbish it may be higher than for buying new and therefore outweigh any benefit of reuse. To address this concern, we have calculated the carbon footprint for the production of a desk, seat and pedestal and the corresponding footprint required to remanufacture these three common office items.
Our analysis looked at the energy required to source the wood, steel, plastic and other materials for production of the furniture and the energy required to ship and assemble the furniture for use. This was compared with the energy to collect, repair / remanufacture and deliver the furniture to a new site for use. Part of the analysis used PAS2050 guidelines which defines a recognised methodology for measuring a products carbon footprint.
Several different remanufacturing scenarios were investigated including basic reuse and replacement of major parts. The amount of carbon saved varied greatly depending on the reuse option chosen, highlighting the need for careful assessment of the overall process before the benefits can be identified. The full report can be accessed via the link on the left.