Using your office as living asset, not a sunk cost

For many organisations, your office is seen as a cost of doing business. Rent, furniture, fixtures and equipment are written off over time and eventually replaced. But what if we started treating offices differently? What if we viewed them as assets that can hold value, adapt to change and contribute to long-term resilience?

This shift in thinking is not just whimsical language. It aligns with the principles of the circular economy and with the growing need to cut embodied carbon, reduce waste and make better use of what we already have. We’ll explore how to get started (and how it’s not actually that costly!) in this article.

The problem with the “replace and discard” mindset

Typically, when an office lease ends or a business moves, the old fit out is stripped and sent for disposal. Desks, partitions and furniture often end up in landfill, even if they are still perfectly usable. It is, of course, a very expensive habit. For both the business and the environment.

According to the European Circular Economy Stakeholder Platform, real estate and fit-out are among the least circular sectors in Europe. In other words, most of what we install still ends up as waste.

But this doesn’t have to be the case. As Planon Software notes, the workplace can become “a key driver of circularity” when materials and equipment are designed and managed for long life, rather than constant replacement.

What does this entail?

Simply put: taking a long-term view. Instead of seeing fixtures and furniture

furniture as consumables, we recognise them as resources that can retain value if managed carefully.

1.Keep what works: When you move or refurbish, identify what can be reused, redeployed or adapted.  Often, most items can continue to serve a purpose with small adjustments.

2.Design to last: Choose materials and systems that are modular, durable and easy to repair or repurpose. That could mean opting for demountable walls, adjustable desks or fittings made from recycled and recyclable components.

3.Plan for change: Offices evolve with the business. Design them to flex without starting from scratch each time

4.Close the loop: When furniture or equipment is no longer needed, look for resale, refurbishment, donation or recycling options before disposal.

In other words, it’s about changing the idea that the office is nothing more than a cost centre.

The business sense behind it

This isn’t just an exercise in sustainability. It has a strong business case too and can potentially save.

According to JLL, businesses that reuse furniture and fittings can reduce fit-out costs by up to 75 percent compared with a full replacement. That means every pound spent on refurbishment goes much further.

A circular approach also lowers capital expenditure, since existing assets continue generating value instead of being written off. It protects against volatile supply chains, as companies depend less on new materials and imported furniture.

The environmental gains are also measurable, which is useful in the “greenwashing” era. The U.K. Green Building Council reports that reuse and refurbishment can significantly reduce whole-life carbon and resource use across a building’s life. This directly contributes to your sustainability targets.

Finally, flexible and circular design supports your agility as a business. As hybrid work continues to embed itself as a standard, a space that can be easily reconfigured helps your teams adapt more quickly and easily.

Getting started: Guidance from our experts

Adopting this mindset takes planning and process, not just good intent. We spoke to some of our office designers to come up with five broad key principles, and this is what they came back with:

• Audit your assets: Start by cataloguing what you already own. Identify which items can be reused, refurbished or resold.
• Understand embodied carbon: Estimate the carbon and cost locked into your existing assets. This helps show the value of reuse versus replacement.
• Procure with the future in mind: Choose suppliers and products that support reuse, refurbishment and disassembly.
• Track and measure: Monitor what gets reused or recycled and how much waste you avoid. These numbers matter for both ESG and financial reporting.
• Plan your exits early: When a lease is ending or a move is on the horizon, include circular asset management in your project plan from the start.

Building better standards

Office design today is increasingly about durability, adaptability and responsibility (as opposed to just pure branding as it was in the past).

When companies treat offices as living assets, they create environments that stay relevant for longer and support both people and the planet. They build resilience and reduce waste, proving that sustainability and commercial sense can go hand in hand.

The office does not have to be a sunk cost. Managed intelligently, it can be an evolving, valuable part of your business, one that grows, changes and gives back.

Want to learn more about building a sustainable office? Download our white paper: What makes an office green?