#CEweekLDN2021: Our contribution to a Circular Economy

In light of Circular Economy week, we have been reflecting on the important contributions Crown has made over time toward a future circular economy.

At the heart of our sustainable workplace change services is the need to reuse assets as much as possible, whether that be directly or following a thorough refurbishment process so items can be ‘as good as new’.

Our long track record of continuing to invest in sustainable development has allowed us to create a new position for a Sustainability Coordinator to assist the direct reuse of items. Starting in January 2021, Eleanor Holmes has been focused on growing our long-standing and successful Giving Back Project, allowing us to facilitate increased reuse in all of our projects. We have been delighted to support 30 charitable institutions with over 2,000 assets since she joined us.

Donation is vital to our circular approach of ensuring as many items as feasible are reused while creating a positive social contribution to the communities where we operate. As an extension of these efforts, we are launching the Giving IT Back scheme: an at-cost service of refurbishing redundant IT and AV assets with secure data eradication and distributing them to school in need. We are working closely with Business in the Community and their National Business Response Network to deliver support in this area.

The remanufacturing and refurbishment of quality assets in our award-winning Renew Centre and Renew IT workshop allows them to have a new lease of life bespoke to the client’s needs. In 2020 alone, we refurbished over 25,000 items of furniture and IT, saving over 2,500 tonnes of CO₂e compared to buying new.

There are a number of ways we are developing our refurbishment services.

• In March, we become an Authorised Refurbishment Partner for Herman Miller; a step forward in encouraging a circular approach to office furniture, giving our customers additional confidence that their products are refurbished to the highest standards.
• We are in the process of launching our Furniture Service to create a circular and flexible solution to short-term furniture needs.
• Using waste desktop material, we are developing a Renewed Range of products so far including a laptop table, bookshelf and coffee table.
• We recognise how important it is to quantify the environmental, social and financial benefit had by using refurbished items for our clients so that they can understand their impact, and as such have updated our Client Savings Reports.

Tracking instances of reuse is vital for assessing our development in circular contributions. We carried out an annual review of our carbon calculations to ensure they are as up-to-date and accurate as possible, introducing the carbon impacts of a variety of IT and AV assets. This has allowed us to create our annual Environmental and Sustainability Report for 2020.

We are always keen to welcome those wanting to see the Circular Economy in action. If you would like to visit our refurbishment centre and see what we do, do not hesitate to get in touch here.