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Have you ever wondered how to incorporate sustainability and a circular approach into your organisation’s workspace design and furniture choices?  Sometimes it’s hard to know just where to start.

The good news is that it’s realistic, affordable and do-able for every office, and JPA can help.

We all try to create workspaces so our teams can thrive, be engaged and productive and look after our clients.  Not only do we create wonderful workspaces for our clients but ALSO, actively protect our planet, maximise resources and eliminate waste – a win win opportunity.

With the government target of Net Zero by 2050 now in place, JPA are addressing sustainability in furniture supply.

We all use office furniture so this issue affects us all – our aim is to make it easy for our clients to procure and manage responsibly:  We plan, design, select and procure furniture sustainably, care and maintain it during use and then re-use or recycle responsibly when it’s not needed anymore, nothing is wasted.

Our complete circular service demonstrates measurable financial savings alongside positive environmental performance and increased local social impact. We create value through tailored design, active promotion of responsible consumption and responsible production – a more relevant, more current purchasing model for today’s world.

JPA are proactively addressing workspace and associated furniture procurement which contributes significantly to ever-increasing landfill tonnage and rising carbon emissions.  Over 90,000 redundant furniture items are sent to landfill each week but much of this could potentially be re-used, re-worked or recycled.

At JPA we provide sustainable design, renewable and reusable and furniture as a starting point.  Our services include initial consultancy, project management, space planning and design, furniture specification and installation, maintenance contracts and servicing, refurbishment, re-use, storage, moves and end of life recycling – all with a single point of contact  and addressed within the same purchase order as a complete service or on a pick and mix basis as required.

We address total cost of life value at the start of the procurement process, maximising our client’s investment – best planning at this stage can significantly help reduce other hidden budget costs such as furniture maintenance, area downtime, repairs, administrative time, cost of waste, cleaning costs, manpower etc etc further down the line.

We help organisations design and create wonderful workspaces for their teams that will enable them to flourish, whilst at the same time, making sustainability in the workplace work for everyone.   If you think that’s COOL, we’d love to hear from you.

Making Furniture Maximisation Cool!

Our first Step for any new turnkey project, is to audit and assess existing furniture for potential re-use in the new scheme. It may be that simply reconfiguring what you already have, but in a new layout will improve workflow, communication and new processes which have evolved and left your space layouts behind!  New is not always necessary and reconfiguration may well reap huge rewards for a relatively small planning and mapping investment.

It’s also worth noting that furniture re-use is a primary criteria for Ska ratings, the environmental assessment method, benchmark and standard for non-domestic fit-outs, led and owned by RICS.

Making Sustainable and Renewable New Furniture Cool!

Of course not everyone wants to re-use their existing furniture, and when that’s the case, we ensure that all new furniture specified is from sustainable and renewable sources, and that all timber based products are from FSC® certified sources, with timber from well managed forests.

Materials re-use is key, so any new furniture specified typically is 98% recyclable, with high volumes of recycled content and we are working to improve this.  Spare parts are available and can be changed as needed after warranties have expired, to prolong the life and maximise investment value. In line with Government Waste Strategy guidelines, new furniture is also supplied with robust warranties and made to last.

JPA hold ISO14001 certification, FISP and FSC ® certification which reflect our ongoing commitment to reducing are carbon emissions and negative impacts – in 2018, JPA saved more than three times as much carbon as we produced.

Making Furniture Maintenance and Servicing Cool!

To maximise your existing furniture investments, we service and maintain your furniture to keep it in optimal condition visually and structurally whilst in use.  We offer this service with new purchases or as separate stand-alone contracts.  With 80% of a building’s life cost in the post-occupation stage, it’s worth the investment to make sure the users find the furnishings functional and comfortable, so that the spaces are fully used and productive.

Making Repair, Refresh and Reworking Cool!

With our own installation teams, vehicle fleet and warehousing, we offer furniture repairs, re-working and refreshing options for existing furniture, designed to keep it in use for longer, and preventing new resources and associated carbon emissions from being used in the unnecessary manufacture of new.

Contract furniture is made to last and may ‘dirty out before actually wearing out – it can often be brought back to peak condition at a fraction of the price of new. It goes without saying that all items are assessed for continued comfort, functionality and fit before work begins.

We frequently mix and match refreshed furniture with new in our projects – most frequently, existing desks are re-topped or re-sized and investment from savings made in new, more comfortable seating for each team member.  Often,  seating is reupholstered to reflect new branding or to refresh a space – with savings made then invested into another project or development scheme.

Making Furniture Re-Homing Cool:

We work with our network of local contacts to re-home your still fit for task furniture items in organisations where it is badly needed (this includes charities, business start-ups, not for profit organisations, schools, nhs, etc,).

Through our pilot schemes we found that preventors to second life use for furniture are transport and manpower, as furniture is bulky and heavy and the process time consuming and expensive. Therefore, once JPA have identified a new home, we deliver then deliver the furniture items in our own vehicles to ensure maximum uptake.

Making Furniture Recycling Cool:

Any furniture items identified as not suitable for re-use, are either deconstructed for spare parts or recycled for materials recovery.  Nothing goes to landfill.

To demonstrate your organisation’s improved environmental performance we present certificates which detail the landfill kg and carbon emissions saved by diverting your furniture form landfill –hopefully this will inspire your teams and strengthen your organisation’s commitment to a more sustainable environmental approach.

Fly-tipping of bulky furniture waste and diminishing landfill are key issues faced by many local authorities so the benefits of this approach and elimination of furniture landfill are wider reaching than they might at first appear.

So it you want your workspaces to be cooler and more sustainable simply get in touch on 01727 840800 or service@jpa-workspaces.com or www.jpa-workspaces.com