Our Circular Office

Here at CIWM, it is our mission to ‘influence, inform and inspire the sustainable management of resources and waste’ and we demonstrated our commitment to this cause during our recent office move from central Northampton to our new home on Northampton Business Park. As a result of our approach to this move, we were able to divert 2.6 tonnes of furniture from landfill, saving 7.6 tonnes of CO2e.

Throughout our move, we worked closely with Rype, an office furniture and design company that applies circular economy principles to its projects, to create a ‘Circular Office’ furnished with a mixture of recycled carpet tiles, remanufactured furniture, and custom pieces made from post-consumer recycled waste plastic, such as table tops made from yoghurt pots, kitchen chopping boards and black plastic bin bags.

Furniture and technology from our previous office space was donated to local schools and charities, including Northampton School for Girls, Derby Sea Cadets, the Disability Network, Madani School Federation, the Deaf Blind Conference Organisation, NHS Leicester, and the British Heart Foundation.

We also took time to shred, sort and separate all miscellaneous items, ensuring that everything that possibly could be was sent to be recycled.

“We wanted to create a space that inspired people. We wanted it to be professional and modern and also reflect CIWM’s ethos of resource efficiency, sustainability and the circular economy. I think we’ve done just that and I’m happy to say we’ve settled very well into our sustainably furnished new home.” – Sarah Poulter, CEO of CIWM.

During WAMITAB’s office merger with CIWM, 6,934kg of office furniture were diverted from landfill using Collecteco.

22 Million pieces of furniture are discarded each year in the UK, and only 15% of this is reused. To help combat this, Collecteco partners with companies across the UK to donate furniture, equipment and materials to charities, schools, NHS Trusts and other not for profit good causes.

It has over 1,200 good causes on its ‘wishlist’ system actively searching for donations of kit, which enables it to quickly find homes for surplus resources.

For each project, Collecteco reports on the good causes helped in the community, in-kind funding figures, carbon avoided, case studies, weight diverted from landfill and more.

Environmentally responsible

From WAMITAB’s office move, Collecteco revealed that the furniture and equipment donated generated £26,725 of value to the community. 6,938kg of C02e were avoided and 6,934kg of furniture and equipment were diverted from ending up in landfill.