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.


Contact us - you might be surprised at what's possible when sustainability meets practicality.

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.