The Environmental Impact of Office Ergonomic Furniture
Many people spend a significant portion of their day at a desk, and as a result, office ergonomic furniture is a growing trend. However, many people are not aware of the environmental impact of the materials used in their office seating.
Components such as steel, cotton, PU leather, and PVC are often used to construct office chairs. The advantage of these products is that they are cheap to make and easy to manufacture. But what about the disposal of these materials? Can these materials be recycled for future use?
Getting rid of steel is easy enough- find a scrapyard and recycle it. But what about PVC? It is made from petroleum, which is derived from crude oil. It also contains chlorine which can be toxic to the environment, especially when disposed of incorrectly. Chlorine can break down into dioxins and furans which are not only toxic, but also add to global warming when released into the atmosphere.
Calculating a product's carbon footprint is a time-consuming and error-prone endeavor. Because of all the many connections between manufacturing, materials, and natural processes of carbon storage and release, it's difficult to get an exact calculation. As a result, the vast majority of carbon footprint estimations are based on solid assumptions.
The Boundaries of the Repair Process
It is not always possible to repair items, for a number of reasons: the item may be too worn to be fixed; the materials may be too weak to be repaired; or the producer may have purposefully intended the product to be unrepairable by anybody other than highly expensive certified professionals.
However, there are some things that are capable of being fixed or repurposed. At first look, it might not appear that repairing existing things is the most cost-effective choice.
The Carbon Emissions Caused by the Production of Office Chairs
An office work chair is predicted to leave a carbon footprint of 72 kg CO2 per chair. The average lifespan of a chair used in the office can be as little as six months if it is of poor quality. Low-quality chairs can have a detrimental effect on the health of employees due to their poor ergonomic design. This means that each time the chair is changed, the company is liable for the emission of an additional 72 kg CO2 into our environment, and the chair itself is disposed of as waste in a landfill.
On the other hand, a chair of higher quality, constructed with more durable materials and designed so that it can be fixed, may last 15 years or longer. This means that your company is only responsible for producing that 72 kg CO2 once or twice throughout the duration of one person's working life.
Your greenhouse gas emissions and carbon footprint will be cut down significantly if you choose to outfit your workplace with office furniture that has been reused, refurbished, or remanufactured. When compared to completely new production, the carbon footprint left by our procedures is extremely minimal; nonetheless, we are making concerted efforts to reduce it even further. The additional benefit is that the cost of the used furniture is substantially lower than the cost of purchasing brand new furniture.
Office furniture that has been reconditioned or remanufactured would have a significant influence on the government's overall carbon footprint if it were to be used in the numerous government offices and departments that are spread out around the country. Not only would this have an effect on carbon emissions and increase sustainability, but it would also provide a fantastic example for the rest of the country of how to conduct business in a manner that is more environmentally and fiscally responsible.
