LEED & Pli: Material reuse – Furniture & Furnishings

For this post please read page 32 of the LEED 2009 for Commercial Interiors Rating System

Reusing existing furniture is an interesting topic for a furniture manufacturer to be talking to its customers about. If we encourage you to try and achieve MR Credit 3.2: Materials Reuse—furniture and furnishings we are turning away business, because to gain the LEED point for MR Credit 5 30% of your furniture and furnishing budget should be spent on salvaged, refurbished or used products. Here at Pli we realise due to environmental issues the way furniture companies do business has to change, so we are trying to come up with our own ideas before we are regulated to into a way of working that may not work for our business.

Using second hand products is all well and good but in some cases, but finding appropriate salvaged, refurbished or used products can pose more problems than solutions. This LEED credit requires a bit of long-term thinking. If you think one step ahead you may get the answer, where the new furniture you buy for your current projects becomes the refurbished furniture you supply for future projects. The next issue is to make the used or refurbish furniture complement all the new furniture your future put project.

If you can see the benefit in this thinking our products are for you, as they are built to be refurbished into “as new” products at the end of their life. This means you get “as new” products as well as qualifying for a LEED point. During refurbishment you also have the opportunity to change paint colours and even add after market accessories like seat covers so you can respond to the latest trends or match new products with out having to throw away perfectly good furniture. Think of us more as your furniture service provider rather than distributor.

All of our products are designed so in someway they can be refurbished or serviced. We will start with the Wrap table as it is most refurbish-able product of the range.

Wrap

• Repaint-able steel surfaces – The powdercoated finishes allows you to recoat the table top as much as you want. If you also want a new colour to match your new interior now is the time to do it.
• Solid FSC Ash components – The leg and end details are only quick sand and oil away from being as good as new.
• Durable OSB core – This durable core material can be put straight back into service after inspection and any damaged holes are easily repaired.
• Fastening and fixings – A small but essentially part of Wrap will transfer easily between tables

Reee Chair

• 100% Recycled plastic seat and back – Each seat or back panel is made up of 14 ribs. If any one of those ribs is damaged they can be replaced on-site. Any damaged parts will then go back into the recycling stream to be made back into new Reee chair parts.
• High-tensile steel tube frame – Most frames should be able to go back into service with a wipe down. Any paint damage can easily be touched up or the frame can be completely re-coated. Any frames damaged beyond that will simply be recycled.
• Accessories – There are also soon to be available covers for chair that will completely transform the chairs creating a whole new upholstered look.

Whitechapel collection

• Solid Bamboo panels – The oiled bamboo surface needs to be treated with more respect that the powdericoated surface on Wrap, but we chose an oiled surface because it is easily repaired and doesn’t have to be completely striped back before re coating.
• Repaint-able steel legs – The the legs on Whitechapel tables are easily repainted but most of gthe time they will only need a quick wipe down.

So with a little bit of forward thinking we can help your future projects earn LEED points at a fraction of the cost without having to compromise on style or quality….. best of all we will never see any of our furniture being needlessly buried in a landfill.