Sustainable Solutions for Higher Education: Reuse and Refurbishment of Office Furniture

Ida Gorecka • December 19, 2024

Running facilities or sustainability at a university or college means your to-do list never gets shorter. Between managing department requests, controlling costs, and meeting ESG reporting deadlines, furniture decisions shouldn't add more pressure to your day. At Coggin SOS, we understand these challenges and have spent over twenty years helping education facilities create sustainable, cost-effective workspaces.

Refurbished Office Furniture: The Smart Solution

Behind every successful educational institution stands an invisible team making smart decisions about resources, space, and sustainability. If you're part of that team, you know the weight of those decisions. Modern universities and colleges demand modern solutions. While your institution focuses on education and research, you're tasked with creating spaces that support their work without breaking the bank. But what if you didn't have to choose between quality furniture and staying within budget? What if the same decision could help both your bottom line and your environmental goals?

That's where professional office furniture refurbishment makes perfect sense. Educational institutions across the UK are transforming their spaces by both refurbishing their existing furniture and purchasing refurbished pieces. Either way, they get furniture that matches new in quality and appearance - plus major cost savings and environmental benefits.

Premium Refurbished Office Furniture: Same Quality, Quarter the Price

The reason refurbished office furniture is so much more affordable is that the majority of the cost of new furniture goes towards manufacturing, shipping, and retailer markups. With refurbished items, these initial costs have already been absorbed, allowing the furniture to be resold at a fraction of the price.

Take our refurbished Verco Ergoform chairs - they're sitting in our Coggin SOS showroom right now. Brand new, they'd cost your department £500 each. Our refurbished version? Just £150. Same chair, same quality, fraction of the price. When your computer lab needs 30 chairs, that's £11,250 staying in your budget - the kind of saving that gets noticed in quarterly reviews.

At Coggin SOS, you'll find professionally refurbished office chairs, desks, and storage solutions ready to go. No long lead times. No complicated ordering processes. Just quality furniture that's ready within 10 days. Contact us now to arrange your visit.

How Refurbished Office Furniture Adapts to Your Changing Needs

As a facilities professional, you know that campus and college spaces are constantly in flux. Departments expand, faculty needs change, and student preferences shift - and your furniture needs to keep pace. This is where refurbished furniture offers better advantages over buying new. Apart from saving on costs, you get immediate availability, the ability to modify pieces to exact specifications, and the freedom to adapt spaces quickly.

At Coggin SOS, we make this flexibility work for you with:

Custom desk resizing to match your exact requirements
Fast 10-day turnaround on most orders
Mix-and-match options from our inventory
Expert space planning support
12-month guarantee on the furniture

Whether you're renovating an outdated administrative office or converting a lecture hall into a collaborative learning space, we'll work closely with you to understand your evolving requirements and provide refurbished office furniture that's the perfect fit.

From resizing second-hand office desks to creating custom configurations for your unique needs, our team handles it all. Just let us know what you need, and we'll handle the rest.

Reduce Carbon Footprint with Refurbished Office Furniture Solutions

Your sustainability targets matter. Not just for reports and ESG ratings, but for showing everyone internally, and the wider world that you're serious about environmental impact. When you choose refurbished office furniture you're proving that sustainability works in practice, not just in policy documents. It shows your institution backs up words with actions.

Working with Coggin SOS turns these environmental commitments into real, measurable achievements. With every project, we provide you with detailed documentation that shows exactly what you've saved and what impact you've made. Perfect for ESG reports, sustainability audits, and proving the value of your initiatives.

Planning Your Next Campus Project?

Those department refits and renovation deadlines might be looming, but the solution doesn't have to be complicated. While you're weighing up long lead times and stretched budgets, let's have a conversation about a smarter way forward.

< Older Post

Newer Post >

Why Buying Cheap Costs More: The Long-Term Value of Quality Refurbished Furniture

By Ida Gorecka • July 30, 2025

You’re in the middle of planning an office space. Budgets are tight. Lead times are short. It’s tempting to type “cheap office chairs” into your browser and find something that fits the spreadsheet. But here’s the problem: cheap furniture is rarely cheap in the long run . The market is saturated with budget desks, chairs, and storage that look good online, but fall apart in practice. And when they do, they cost more - more to replace, more to dispose of, more to fix (if that’s even possible), and more in lost time and productivity. It’s a vicious cycle that undermines your budget, timeline, and any potential ESG goals. According to WRAP , the UK disposes of over 200,000 tonnes of office furniture every year - much of it barely used. When furniture fails quickly, so does your investment. In a commercial setting, that failure shows up in missed deadlines, spiralling budgets, and sustainability goals slipping out of reach. So before you hit "order" on another bulk buy of flat-packed furniture, take a moment. In this article, you'll learn the hidden costs of cheap office furniture and why refurbished premium office furniture is the smarter alternative. If you're looking to reduce hassle, save money, and build a workspace that actually lasts, keep on reading. Need help getting started? Get in touch with our team for advice, audits, or to browse our refurbished stock .

Refurbished Office Furniture Saves Overbury Over £2000 on Site Setup Costs

By Ida Gorecka • July 18, 2025

Anyone who's worked in construction knows that site setup costs can quickly spiral. For Overbury , one of the UK's leading fit-out and refurbishment specialists, managing these costs while maintaining professional standards is a constant balancing act. When setting up their latest construction site office, they faced a challenge familiar to many in the industry: creating a functional workspace quickly and cost-effectively. After seeing what we achieved together on their previous project, Overbury approached us with clear priorities - they needed a professional office setup delivered on a construction timeline. With tight deadlines to meet and costs to manage, they needed their office space ready quickly while avoiding the expense and environmental impact of buying new office furniture. Like many construction projects, this one came with complex requirements - specific layouts, tight timelines, and budget constraints - yet Overbury knew from experience that refurbished office furniture could deliver exactly what they needed.

From Purchase to Repurpose: How to Extend the Lifespan of Your Office Furniture

By Ida Gorecka • July 16, 2025

If you're managing an office move, refit, or hybrid transition, you've likely faced this question: do we buy new furniture, or make use of what we have? Every year, over 1.2 million desks and 1.8 million office chairs are sent to landfill in the UK- enough to fill Wembley Stadium twice. ( Source: WRAP ) With Landfill Tax raised to £126.15 per tonne in April 2025 (S ource: UK Government ), the cost of disposing office furniture is increasing fast. If you’re trying to balance budgets , meet ESG goals , and minimise downtime , choosing refurbishment over replacement could be the most strategic decision you make this year. In this guide, we’ll show you how to get more from what you already own. Saving thousands, supporting your ESG goals, and creating a more flexible, future-proof workspace. Got a project coming up? Get in touch and we’ll help you explore your refurbishment options.