Achieving a Sustainable Office: 3 Easy Steps to Reduce Your Office’s Carbon Footprint

Ida Gorecka • February 13, 2025

Did you know buildings, including offices, are responsible for nearly 40% of global energy-related carbon emissions? Many businesses don’t realise that office furniture is a big part of that problem. 


Consumers are noticing too: 85% prefer eco-conscious brands, and 34% are willing to pay more for sustainable products (source). If you’re not thinking about sustainability, you are falling behind.


But contrary to what most businesses assume, creating a sustainable office doesn’t mean a huge overhaul or extra costs. In fact, it can save you lots of money. At Coggin SOS, we’ve helped hundreds of businesses go green and we can help you too. Here are three easy steps to help you save both money and carbon emissions on your next office furniture project.

The Shocking Carbon Cost of New Office Furniture: What You Need to Know

Look around your office for a moment. Every desk, chair, and cabinet you see has a carbon footprint bigger than you realise. While most businesses focus on energy bills and paper waste when thinking about their environmental impact, office furniture often gets overlooked. 


Let's break it down:


Manufacturing

A single new office chair creates around 82kg of carbon - that's like driving 200 miles. But it doesn't stop there. The raw materials for that chair travel between multiple factories, each step adding more emissions. Steel gets shipped from one country, plastic from another, fabric from a third. 


Shipping

Most office furniture has to travel a long way before it reaches your office. Just getting a desk chair to you can create a lot of carbon emissions. Between container ships, freight, and multiple stops along the way, the carbon footprint adds up fast, even before it arrives.


Looking for local, sustainable solutions? Contact us to reduce the carbon footprint of your office furniture while still getting top-quality pieces.


Disposal

In the UK alone 300 tonnes of office furniture enters landfill every day. Much of this furniture is still perfectly usable - it might just need some care or updating. As this furniture breaks down in landfill, it releases methane - a greenhouse gas that traps more heat than CO2. Then the cycle starts again as businesses buy new furniture to replace what they've thrown away.


Find out more about where your waste actually goes.


But, you don't have to participate in this carbon-heavy cycle. Your office furniture choices can cut both emissions and costs. The three Rs - Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle - offer practical ways to make this happen. Let's look at exactly how each one works…

1. Reduce: Smart Choices with Lower Local Impact

Want to save money, time and cut your carbon footprint at the same time? Start by thinking about how you buy office furniture. A new office chair releases around 82kg of carbon. Multiply that across your office, and you're looking at a serious environmental issue before anyone sits down.


Most office furniture starts overseas. Remember that journey we talked about? Raw materials get shipped between factories, parts are made in different places, and everything crosses oceans. All those steps increase the carbon footprint and slow down delivery.


At Coggin SOS, we skip the carbon chain by keeping things local. Instead of importing new furniture, we source high-quality, pre-owned pieces from UK businesses. Brands like Herman Miller and Steelcase last for decades, so why send them to the landfill? By refurbishing them locally, we cut emissions from both manufacturing and long-haul shipping while giving you the same quality furniture at a fraction of the price.


What’s in it for you:



  • Faster delivery - we deliver in 10 days or less, while new furniture takes 8-12 weeks
  • Lower carbon footprint - local sourcing and refurbishing, no global supply chain
  • Big savings - high-quality furniture at a fraction of the cost of new


Skip the carbon-heavy supply chain. Contact our team at Coggin SOS to source local, quality second-hand office furniture for up to 80% less compared to buying new.


Wondering if refurbished furniture is the right choice for you? Here’s what you need to know before making the switch!

2. Reuse: Keeping Quality Office Furniture in Circulation

Every year, tons of perfectly good office chairs, desks, and storage units are thrown away-not because they’re completely broken and unusable, but because they look a little worn. That’s money wasted, resources lost, and landfill space filled up unnecessarily. Meanwhile, businesses spend a fortune replacing furniture that could easily be restored to as-new condition.


At Coggin SOS, we offer two valuable options for you to make a smarter, more sustainable choice. 


1. Refurbish Your Existing Office Furniture

We can restore your current office furniture to like-new condition, from reupholstering chairs matching your brand colours to refinishing and resizing desks for the perfect fit for your space. This extends the life of your furniture by decades, saving you the cost and carbon impact that come with buying new.


2. Replace Your Office Furniture 

We also offer high-quality, second-hand office furniture that is expertly refurbished and ready to go in just 10 days. For up to 80% less compared to buying new! Plus, every piece comes with a 12-month warranty, so you can be sure you’re getting high-quality, lasting value.

3. Recycle: Your Simple Solution to Office Furniture Waste

Not all office furniture can be refurbished, but that doesn’t mean it should go straight to landfill. At Coggin SOS, we make sure your old office furniture is recycled properly, turning it into valuable materials instead of contributing to landfill waste. We handle everything. Metals get turned into raw materials for new products, while plastics and foam are sorted and repurposed.


Here’s why that matters for you: Businesses are under increasing pressure to prove they’re taking measured environmental action. We make it easy by providing you with savings reports and certificates that show exactly how your recycling efforts make a difference. These reports help you:


  • Demonstrate genuine sustainability to stakeholders
  • Secure green contracts that prioritise environmental responsibility
  • Meet ESG reporting standards
  • Ensure you’re compliant with waste regulations


Get in touch with us today to see how we can help recycle your old office furniture responsibly.

Save Money, Cut Carbon: Your Sustainable Office Starts Here

You're in business to make money, not to spend it on new office furniture every few years. But you also know that sustainability matters - to your clients, your investors, and your own conscience. You don't have to choose between your budget and your environmental goals.


At Coggin SOS, we offer solutions that tick all the boxes. So why spend more time and money on new furniture that just adds to your carbon footprint? Make the smart choice for your business and the planet. 


Get in touch with Coggin SOS today and let us show you how easy and cost-effective eco-friendly office furniture can be. Because the future of business is sustainable. The question is, will you lead the charge, or be left picking up the pieces? It's your move. Make it a good one.

One Size Doesn't Fit All: The Benefits of Resizing and Repurposing Office Desks

By Ida Gorecka • September 8, 2025
Your office transformation is approved. Budget's signed off. New layout's finalised. There's just one problem: those 1600mm executive desks that worked perfectly in the old corner offices are now 400mm too wide for your new collaborative pods. The reception desk you spent £3,000 on last year? It's the wrong height entirely for your rebrand. Most facilities managers would see this as a disposal problem. Skip hire , landfill tax , 12-week lead times for replacements. But what if that's completely backwards? What if the furniture that doesn't fit isn't a problem to solve, but an asset to unlock? Every year in the UK, around 1.2 million desks and 1.8 million office chairs are sent to landfill and only 14 % of them are being reused (Source: WRAP , Lancashire Business View ). Those old, "wrong-sized" desks you're planning to skip? They can be professionally refurbished and resized to your exact specifications in 7-10 days , at 40-70% less than new , with zero waste and a 12-month warranty . This article is for facilities managers, procurement leads, and fit-out teams who want practical, product-focused solutions. You’ll see when resizing and repurposing makes sense, the savings it delivers, the compliance boxes it ticks, and how to roll it out step by step. Curious what your current desks could deliver if resized or refurbished? Book a free assessment - we’ll map options, costs, and timelines for you.

Why Paying More Isn't Always Better: The Smart Choice of Refurbished Ergonomic Chairs

By Ida Gorecka • August 19, 2025
Refitting an office today means juggling a lot: tighter budgets, faster timelines, and pressure to deliver on ESG goals. And when it comes to ergonomic chairs, the one piece of furniture an office team relies on every day, many assume paying more for “new” automatically means better. But that’s no longer true. Refurbished ergonomic chairs offer the same comfort , durability , and support as new, backed by warranties , come with less cost and with far shorter lead times . For facilities and procurement teams, that means more budget freed up for other priorities, and fewer delays holding back your project. At Coggin SOS, we work with organisations that once assumed refurbished meant second-best. Until they saw the results. High-performance, fully warranted ergonomic chairs. Fast delivery. Circular outcomes they could actually report on. And savings of up to 80% compared to new (check out our case studies here ). In this article, you’ll learn what refurbished office chairs really offer in practice, why they’re becoming a preferred option for FM teams and procurement leads, and how your next fit-out or move could be both greener and smarter than you think. Thinking about your next office project? Contact our team and see how premium refurbished ergonomic chairs can give you comfort, savings, and sustainability in one.

Beyond Recycling: The Role of Office Furniture in a Truly Sustainable Economy

By Ida Gorecka • August 7, 2025
If you're here, you're probably managing a lot. A relocation, a refurbishment, or a growing ESG brief. Maybe you’re under pressure to meet sustainability targets, stay on budget, and deliver results your team and clients can actually see. And right now, office furniture might not be on your radar. But it should be. In most organisations, furniture is still treated as an afterthought. It’s functional, it’s bulky, and when it’s no longer needed, it’s often sent straight to landfill. But here’s the truth: when you start thinking of office furniture as a strategic asset within the circular economy , everything changes. For your budget . Your carbon reporting . Your project timelines . Your reputation . This article is for you if you’re tired of defaulting to skips. If you want smarter ways to meet ESG goals without blowing your budget. If you’re ready to make office sustainability a measurable advantage - not just a checkbox. We’ll show you just how much office furniture is wasted each year, what it’s really costing your business, and how the circular economy can apply directly to your projects. You’ll learn how organisations like yours are saving thousands, avoiding skips entirely, and turning unwanted furniture into reportable ESG wins - plus practical steps to get started today. Curious what your office clearance could be worth? Get in touch with our team for a free circular furniture audit.