Upcycling 34 Ecology Remanufacturing and upcycling of existing furniture Another example is an upcycling project for a big Swiss corporation with a vast stock of office furniture. It had been put into storage because digitalisation and the increased flexibility and mobility of working practices have greatly changed the requirement for office furniture. Keeping it in storage tied up resources with no resulting benefit in the foreseeable future. So, the company wondered how this unused stock could be re-used to make new furniture. With this in mind, the company came up with the idea for some new furniture and then had it produced, in partnership with Girsberger and the designer Björn Ischi, who specialises in upcycling. No less than 86% of it consists of materials from the old furniture and it is ideal for the changed working patterns at the company’s office. So, the unused furniture was upcycled and resources were freed up for other purposes. Everyone has benefited from this project. The employees have new furniture that suits their changed requirements, while the company has saved money because it no longer has to keep the unused furniture in storage or buy new furniture. What’s more, existing resources are being given a second lease of life, in the spirit of the circular economy. Of course, we could have simply offered the customer suitable new furniture, but that would have been far less sustainable. In general, we are observing how the demand for our remanufacturing and upcycling solutions is growing steadily and attracting more interest from the general public. This is confirmed by the fact that Girsberger Remanufacturing won the 2023 German Sustainability Prize in the ‘Design’ category. This is the most prestigious award of its kind in Europe and is awarded annually in a partnership between the German federal government, the Council for Sustainable Development and various research organisations. The prize is intended to show that acting responsibly not only helps to solve social and environmental problems on a global or local scale but can also be a way of increasing profitability and competitiveness. Mathias Seiler For example: When old cabinets and tables have had their day The “Aello” project is part of a refurnishing process in which traditional individual offices were being converted into modern, agile workspaces: hundreds of good-quality carcasses and tables that were no longer needed for storage were to be given a new purpose. They were taken apart, reconfigured, painted in bright colours and turned into new items of furniture that satisfy all kinds of different needs. (Illus. project example Aello)
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