Herman Miller Ergon Chair

Great Deal on most popular chair.

Herman Miller Ergon Chair $65.

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Used Office Furniture Donated to Needy School

Toronto, ON (January, 2009) —When Cancer Care Ontario wanted to refurbish its offices with Allsteel Inc. furniture, the Canadian cancer services agency preferred to find a new home and more sustainable solution for the used furnishings it was replacing instead of sending them to the landfill.

Summerlee Office Solutions, the Allsteel dealer responsible for the new sale, found the perfect, if unexpected, answer thousands of miles away: four schools in Belize that were in desperate need of supplies and furniture.

Summerlee was able to find the schools thanks to Green Solutions North America Inc., an organization dedicated to repurposing and recycling used office furnishings and supplies. Through Green Solutions and its School in a Box program, Summerlee loaded a 40-foot container with Cancer Care’s castoffs plus various supplies and donations from others, and shipped it to the Cayo District of Belize, a rural area of farmlands and rugged mountains. But the donation didn’t just supply furnishings for the needy school children. The holiday season came early for 75 kids who also received backpacks filled with school supplies and an American dollar, courtesy of Summerlee and Allsteel.

The project, which began a year ago, involved more than 100 hours of volunteer time from the Summerlee staff, with added help from Allsteel’s Market Manager for Ontario, Peter Livingstone. Summerlee also generously covered the shipping costs for the project.
“Working with Summerlee and Green Solutions on this project was truly rewarding and it’s great that Allsteel now has its own active partnership with Green Solutions,” Livingstone said. “It’s fantastic to witness how we can have a positive impact not only on the environment but also in extending a helping hand to our fellow man.”

This past fall, Allsteel became the first American manufacturer to officially partner with Green Solutions North America, Inc., having had the direct experience with the Belize project.

From Office Furniture Design.

Recycling Office Furniture

• By re manufacturing office furniture rather than buying it new, US businesses could avoid $93 million in disposal costs.
• Purchasing a re manufactured product can cost consumers 30 to 50% less than a new product.
• According to the EPA, three million tons of office furniture and furnishings are discarded each year.
• The amount of labor and energy required to alter an existing product during manufacturing is 85 to 95% less than that required to manufacture a new product.
• Carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, sulfur oxides, nitrous oxides, volatile organic, compounds, and particulate matter are all reduced by the recycling office furniture, thereby reducing air pollution and global warming.
• The annual energy savings resulting from manufacturing activities worldwide is 120 trillion BTU's. This equals the electricity generated by eight nuclear power plants, or 16 million barrels of crude oil.
• The annual material savings resulting from re manufacturing activities worldwide is 14 million tons a year. This is the equivalent of a fully loaded railway train 1650 miles long. This would be more than half way across USA (60%).

Source: Rochester Institute of Technology and the Office Furniture Recyclers Forum.