Green-Works Office Furniture

Green-Works was set up to bridge the gap between the thousands of tonnes of serviceable office furniture needlessly sent to landfill every year and the hundreds of non-profit organisations in need of such items.

The organisation has a zero landfill policy and any furniture that cannot be re-used is re-manufactured or recycled.

As a registered charity and social enterprise, Green-Works pass on large quantities of redundant but usable office furniture at very low cost to charities, schools, community groups and even start-up businesses. It has assisted more than 300 organisations by redistributing over 5,000 items of furniture. In addition, 150 tonnes of equipment that was unsuitable for re-use was recycled.

The furniture donors are mostly commercial organisations or government bodies who are looking to improve their environmental performance and fulfil their social responsibilities. These organisations benefit from a one-stop collection service to remove all their unwanted office furniture. Some of the organisations Green-Works works with include BP, Unilever and Procter & Gamble and HSBC. In fact it supported HSBC in the biggest known office furniture recycling contract in British history, involving the processing of 3,000 tonnes of furniture.

An important part of the Green-Works initiative is to support the employment and training of people who are often denied these opportunities. Green-Works was initially set up in Woolwich and operated by Remploy, the UK’s largest employer of disabled people.

The organisation now operates warehouses across the UK in partnership with other community and not-for-profit organisations. Its warehouse operations are based in deprived inner city areas and have the common aim of providing training and jobs to the disadvantaged, disabled or long-term unemployed. Employees can receive certificated training in various skills including health and safety, manual handling, first aid, fork-lift-truck driving, storage management, sales and customer relations, PAT testing and waste awareness.