Egans partners to recycle furniture and rebuild young lives
The Furniture Fund is an initiative held to help offices get rid of unused office furniture in a way that is environmentally friendly while providing a donation to homeless youth in need (See how Furniture Fund helps homeless youth).
This initiative is birthed from The Property Industry Foundations relationship with our newest Victorian Gold Donor furniture removalist company Egans (Egans website).
Egans a company about protecting our future
Egans’ business model is based on a ‘circular economy’, meaning they recycle, reuse and repurpose furniture in a way that is dedicated to reducing waste. This drives a sustainable solution to our global resource challenge.
Through this circular economy outlook, Egans has been able to transform on average 120,000 assets per year. 40% of the furniture Egans receive is broken down into component parts, and those components (metal, melamine, plastic etc.) go to down stream suppliers or to landfill.
“We extend the life of furniture for our customers wherever we can. Where assets can no longer be used, we’ll move them through to other parts of the economy by swapping, sharing, or selling. We’ll refurbish assets so that clients can extend their usage. When Assets are no longer usable, we recycle them; break them down to their component parts. Where there’s potential to re-use, we re-manufacture and return as new pieces of furniture.”
The idea Egans thrives to achieve is to extend the life of furniture and create a second chance for furniture that is needing a new circumstance.
Connecting furniture recycling to youth homelessness
With such a driven outlook towards the sustainability of our future and second chances, there was a natural connection between Egans and The Property Industry Foundation. Both carry the importance of our future and nurturing what we have but from two different lenses recycling and reducing waste and, housing and support for homeless young people.
Another commonality is the relationships with industry and office spaces that are always looking for support to get rid of furniture and looking to support initiatives like building homes for homeless youth.
The opportunity to bring our goals together in a way that can help our industry affiliates get rid of office furniture and in turn create a great opportunity help build a home for youth in need led to the creation of the Furniture Fund initiative.
Providing a solution to a growing problem
In this current environment, two things have become certain. The modern-day workplace is becoming more flexible moving online and removing the need for office spaces, while youth homelessness is becoming a growing concern with increasing social and economic circumstances making it harder for youth on the street to have somewhere to turn.
Does your business have a workplace that has less and less use of office furniture? Are you wanting to help make a tangible difference in the lives of homeless youth?
Furniture Fund is here to help fight an increasing need for businesses and solve an increasing problem for youth on the street.
Learn more about the Furniture Fund by visiting the page or by contacting Priscilla Heathwood on 0438 686 370 or email pheathwood@pif.com.au.
