Sustainable Solutions for Higher Education: Reuse and Refurbishment of Office Furniture

Ida Gorecka • December 19, 2024

Running facilities or sustainability at a university or college means your to-do list never gets shorter. Between managing department requests, controlling costs, and meeting ESG reporting deadlines, furniture decisions shouldn't add more pressure to your day. At Coggin SOS, we understand these challenges and have spent over twenty years helping education facilities create sustainable, cost-effective workspaces.

Refurbished Office Furniture: The Smart Solution

Behind every successful educational institution stands an invisible team making smart decisions about resources, space, and sustainability. If you're part of that team, you know the weight of those decisions. Modern universities and colleges demand modern solutions. While your institution focuses on education and research, you're tasked with creating spaces that support their work without breaking the bank. But what if you didn't have to choose between quality furniture and staying within budget? What if the same decision could help both your bottom line and your environmental goals?


That's where professional office furniture refurbishment makes perfect sense. Educational institutions across the UK are transforming their spaces by both refurbishing their existing furniture and purchasing refurbished pieces. Either way, they get furniture that matches new in quality and appearance - plus major cost savings and environmental benefits.

Premium Refurbished Office Furniture: Same Quality, Quarter the Price

The reason refurbished office furniture is so much more affordable is that the majority of the cost of new furniture goes towards manufacturing, shipping, and retailer markups. With refurbished items, these initial costs have already been absorbed, allowing the furniture to be resold at a fraction of the price.


Take our refurbished Verco Ergoform chairs - they're sitting in our Coggin SOS showroom right now. Brand new, they'd cost your department £500 each. Our refurbished version? Just £150. Same chair, same quality, fraction of the price. When your computer lab needs 30 chairs, that's £11,250 staying in your budget - the kind of saving that gets noticed in quarterly reviews.


At Coggin SOS, you'll find professionally refurbished office chairs, desks, and storage solutions ready to go. No long lead times. No complicated ordering processes. Just quality furniture that's ready within 10 days. Contact us now to arrange your visit.

How Refurbished Office Furniture Adapts to Your Changing Needs

As a facilities professional, you know that campus and college spaces are constantly in flux. Departments expand, faculty needs change, and student preferences shift - and your furniture needs to keep pace. This is where refurbished furniture offers better advantages over buying new. Apart from saving on costs, you get immediate availability, the ability to modify pieces to exact specifications, and the freedom to adapt spaces quickly.


At Coggin SOS, we make this flexibility work for you with:


  • Custom desk resizing to match your exact requirements
  • Fast 10-day turnaround on most orders
  • Mix-and-match options from our  inventory
  • Expert space planning support
  • 12-month guarantee on the furniture


Whether you're renovating an outdated administrative office or converting a lecture hall into a collaborative learning space, we'll work closely with you to understand your evolving requirements and provide refurbished office furniture that's the perfect fit. 


From resizing second-hand office desks to creating custom configurations for your unique needs, our team handles it all. Just let us know what you need, and we'll handle the rest.

Reduce Carbon Footprint with Refurbished Office Furniture Solutions

Your sustainability targets matter. Not just for reports and ESG ratings, but for showing everyone internally, and the wider world that you're serious about environmental impact. When you choose refurbished office furniture you're proving that sustainability works in practice, not just in policy documents. It shows your institution backs up words with actions.


Working with Coggin SOS turns these environmental commitments into real, measurable achievements. With every project, we provide you with detailed documentation that shows exactly what you've saved and what impact you've made. Perfect for ESG reports, sustainability audits, and proving the value of your initiatives.

Planning Your Next Campus Project?

Those department refits and renovation deadlines might be looming, but the solution doesn't have to be complicated. While you're weighing up long lead times and stretched budgets, let's have a conversation about a smarter way forward.


Contact us - you might be surprised at what's possible when sustainability meets practicality.

The Office Furniture Strategy That's Hiding in Plain Sight

By Sam Coggin • October 16, 2025
Why Treating Furniture as Disposable Is Costing You More Than Money Walk into any office during a refurbishment and you'll see it: perfectly functional furniture heading for skips whilst new equivalents get ordered. We've normalised a throwaway culture that makes no business sense. Here's the thing—your office furniture strategy is actually a resource management strategy. And most businesses are getting it completely wrong. The 10-Year Desk That Could Last 30 Quality office furniture is engineered to last decades. That Herman Miller chair? Built for 30+ years of daily use. Solid wood desks? Practically indestructible with basic maintenance. Even well-made MDF furniture can serve for 15-20 years. Yet average office furniture replacement cycles run 5-7 years. Not because furniture fails—because offices move, rebrand, or someone decides it looks dated. We're throwing away assets with 70% of their useful life remaining. The Hidden Value in "Old" Office Furniture That dated reception desk isn't broken—it just needs refinishing. The conference table that doesn't match your new brand colours? It's still a conference table. Those filing cabinets from 2010? They still file things. The furniture reuse market is booming because smart businesses realised: Refurbishment costs 20-40% of replacement Quality vintage office furniture often exceeds modern standards "Dated" to you might be "perfect" for someone else Storage costs less than disposal plus replacement Why Circular Makes Commercial Sense The traditional model: Buy → Use (5 years) → Skip → Landfill fees → Buy again The circular model: Buy quality → Use → Refurbish → Use → Redeploy internally → Sell/donate → Someone else uses The second model extracts maximum value from every purchase. It's not environmental ideology—it's basic asset management. The Material Hierarchy of Sense When you must dispose of furniture, the value recovery hierarchy is straightforward: Metal furniture (filing cabinets, desk frames): Scrap value often covers removal costs Infinitely recyclable without quality loss Local scrap dealers will collect Wooden furniture: Refurbishment market is strong Solid wood retains value for decades Worst case: biomass fuel value Upholstered items: Reupholstery extends life by decades Foam and fabric recycling infrastructure growing Frame often outlasts covering by years Plastic furniture: Limited reuse market Recycling depends on plastic type Often the truly disposable option The Procurement Shift That Changes Everything Instead of asking "What's cheapest?" ask: What's the total life cost including disposal? Can we lease furniture and return it? Is there a take-back scheme? What's the refurbishment potential? Could we buy refurbished instead? Quality furniture that costs twice as much but lasts three times longer isn't expensive—it's a bargain. Your Practical Action Plan This month: Audit furniture due for replacement—does it really need replacing? Get refurbishment quotes alongside replacement quotes Find local furniture reuse charities—tax benefits plus free removal This quarter: Build furniture lifecycle into office move planning Create internal furniture redeployment system Partner with furniture refurbishment specialists This year: Shift procurement to quality + longevity over low initial cost Track furniture age and plan maintenance, not just replacement Calculate true total cost of ownership including disposal The Business Case Nobody's Making Every piece of furniture that gets reused or refurbished: Reduces procurement costs Eliminates disposal fees Maintains proven functionality Avoids delivery disruption Prevents waste compliance headaches This isn't about sustainability targets. It's about extracting maximum value from assets you've already paid for. The Bottom Line We've been conditioned to see office furniture as disposable. But it's not packaging—it's infrastructure. And successful businesses don't throw away functioning infrastructure. Your office furniture strategy shouldn't be about staying trendy. It should be about managing valuable assets sensibly. Next time someone suggests replacing functional furniture, ask: "What's actually wrong with what we have?" The answer might save you more than money. Want to discuss furniture lifecycle strategies? Share your biggest office furniture challenge in the comments.
Refurbished Herman Miller Aeron chair in a home office with text overlay on size and options guide.

Aeron Chairs: How to Choose the Right Size and Options

By Sam Coggin • September 30, 2025
Discover how to choose the right size and options for a Herman Miller Aeron chair. Save money and support sustainability with refurbished models.

One Size Doesn't Fit All: The Benefits of Resizing and Repurposing Office Desks

By Ida Gorecka • September 8, 2025
Your office transformation is approved. Budget's signed off. New layout's finalised. There's just one problem: those 1600mm executive desks that worked perfectly in the old corner offices are now 400mm too wide for your new collaborative pods. The reception desk you spent £3,000 on last year? It's the wrong height entirely for your rebrand. Most facilities managers would see this as a disposal problem. Skip hire , landfill tax , 12-week lead times for replacements. But what if that's completely backwards? What if the furniture that doesn't fit isn't a problem to solve, but an asset to unlock? Every year in the UK, around 1.2 million desks and 1.8 million office chairs are sent to landfill and only 14 % of them are being reused (Source: WRAP , Lancashire Business View ). Those old, "wrong-sized" desks you're planning to skip? They can be professionally refurbished and resized to your exact specifications in 7-10 days , at 40-70% less than new , with zero waste and a 12-month warranty . This article is for facilities managers, procurement leads, and fit-out teams who want practical, product-focused solutions. You’ll see when resizing and repurposing makes sense, the savings it delivers, the compliance boxes it ticks, and how to roll it out step by step. Curious what your current desks could deliver if resized or refurbished? Book a free assessment - we’ll map options, costs, and timelines for you.