Rethinking Furniture Sustainability with ReFunk
The climate crisis is here. In recent years its devastating effects have become impossible to ignore, and conversations about sustainability, the circular economy, and eco-friendly initiatives are taking centre stage.
The furniture industry is wreaking havoc on the environment. In the EU alone, over 10 million tonnes of furniture is discarded annually. In the UK, up to 69.9 million homeware items, worth £2.17 billion, are dumped each year. Surely a better home can be found for these pieces, instead of discarding them.
ReFunk is a female-led start-up that connects consumers and businesses with furniture upcyclers to commission sustainable furniture for their homes and offices. Our vision is to help communities focus their sustainability efforts on furniture, combating the fast furniture industry and helping the planet in the process. The ReFunk team champions upcycling to eliminate furniture waste and solve the untenable and unsustainable figures highlighted above.
Upcycling a piece of furniture with ReFunk, instead of dumping it, diverts on average 30.54 kg of CO2 equivalents from landfill. Working in this way also supports local and independent creatives, by collaborating with them to create beautiful, bespoke pieces of furniture which showcases their skills and talents.
ReFunk has two sustainable furniture solutions for companies. We’ll either help you find a new piece or collection of furniture for your office, or renew a piece of existing furniture in your office.
For both solutions, the ReFunk team coordinates the design (or redesign), price, and logistics with our team of trusted upcyclers on your behalf – working closely with you to ensure the design or refresh is exactly to your tastes. We deliver the furniture, unveiling it in your office with a plaque outlining the sustainability story and unique impact statement.
When you commission sustainable and bespoke furniture for your workspaces, you’ll see the benefits. These include:
Strengthening ESG strategies by eliminating furniture waste and using repair and refurbishment to give existing furniture a new lease of life.
Improving social impact by actively creating jobs for local and independent craftspeople.
Transforming offices into inviting and creative spaces.
ReFunk believes that sustainability and style can work hand-in-hand. Join us as we work to ditch fast furniture in favour of a creative approach to sustainable interiors which uses the talents of local craftspeople to keep furniture in the circular economy and out of landfills.
For more information about our work, read about how ReFunk collaborated with EY to commission a second-hand bookcase for a book swapping initiative in their Dublin office.
Whether or not you’re in the market for furniture, ReFunk invites you to complete this short survey. Your feedback and insights will allow ReFunk to tailor our services to best suit the community's needs going forward.
Joining Techies Go Green.
If you want to learn more about sustainability and what your company can do to become more sustainable, consider joining Techies Go Green. Techies Go Green is a movement dedicated to decarbonising IT and tech-oriented companies through collaborating and sharing knowledge. Membership is open to both companies and individuals within the UK and Ireland. We would love to have you join and to help you in your journey towards sustainability and decarbonisation.