Case study: Sustainable furniture solutions for education charity

Reading mobilisation

The charity approached BMG for assistance removing furniture in its office in Reading. In the process of reorganising its office layout, it had 10 desks and four bench-style desks that were no longer needed.

Sustainability was a priority for this project and the charity did not want the desks to go to landfill waste. We explored furniture donation options so that furniture was either rehomed or disposed of responsibly. Sales executive Henry Halm oversaw the move and conducted a site survey to assess the scope of the move.

Once he had assessed furniture, he contacted Business2Schools, one of BMG’s charity partners that repurposes office furniture and technology by donating it to schools across the UK. With Business2Schools, Henry arranged for the desks to be donated to Bohunt School Wokingham, in Arborfield.

Rather than removing the furniture to one of BMG’s warehouses, the process was streamlined by coordinating for the school to receive the furniture directly. BMG’s vehicle could accommodate the items and move them directly, so decommissioning and reassembly were not needed.

The entire move and donation were completed in one day, ensuring minimal disruption to the Reading office and providing Bohunt with new equipment as quickly as possible.

Sheffield mobilisation

BMG also assisted the charity in relocating to its new office in Sheffield. First, BMG assessed the location and then provided crates and Busi bags for all filing and personal effects being relocated.

After that, the office relocation was delivered over one day. Prior to the mobilisation, the client’s IT team oversaw and decommissioned the IT equipment. Then, BMG worked with the in-house installation team to dismantle, relocate, and reassemble all equipment including desking.

The move went seamlessly, and the day following the move, the new office was operational.

Sustainable furniture management

One challenge for both locations was ensuring complete landfill avoidance. For the Sheffield location, once the move was completed, BMG was tasked with finding a sustainable solution for the clearance of the remaining redundant furniture.

BMG took images of the furniture and shared them with our charity partners, who were able to take 80 per cent of the furniture and a further 10 per cent was taken by another existing BMG client.

For the remaining 10 per cent of furniture, BMG worked with our waste management partner to environmentally recycle it. The Sheffield office was operational the day following the relocation as all redundant furniture was either given a second life or environmentally recycled.

At the Reading site, a range of furniture was donated, including desks, tables, chairs and filing cabinets. Overall, 22 pieces of furniture were donated, and a further 10 operator chairs are being stored at BMG before being recycled. By storing them rather than recycling them immediately, BMG saved £250 and cut down on 750kg carbon emissions it would take them to the centre.

At Reading, 844kg of carbon was saved from 22 items donated. This statistic was calculated against eliminating the need to manufacture new furniture items and it included the embodied material.

We supplied the client with a detailed sustainability report at the end of each move.

Sustainable furniture support

To find out more about BMG’s workplace relocation support, get in touch with our teams or fill out our quote enquiry form.