Ogilvie Ross was commissioned to carry out a detailed inventory of all furniture and fittings within four buildings in central London. The data produced from the inventory analysis was used to investigate the possible disposal options for all the furniture that was unlikely to be reused in the planned relocation of 1,000 staff to a new headquarters building at the end of 2007. The findings were collated with full cost benefit analysis profiles detailing 4 main disposal options. The findings in the report were used to create a tender document for the ethical disposal of all furniture and fittings.

Ogilvie Ross was appointed project manager for the ethical disposal of all furniture, fittings and WEEE compliant items from the 4 buildings vacated by LFEPA. In total 6,000 items of furniture with a total weight of 257 tonnes was disposed of. The contract specification required that reuse of furniture must be in excess of 68% by weight. Ogilvie Ross achieved a reuse rate of 82.8% for the project. Material recycling represented 11.3% with 3.7% being used in a waste to energy process. Landfill waste was limited to 2.2%, the equivalent of a single walk-in skip.

The success of the project led LFEPA to put forward the project for the SDUK 2008 Awards. Nick Tong, LEFPA Group Procurement Manager stated - ”This project has delivered considerable financial as well as environmental savings. Savings in the order of £100,000, compared to the original budgeted figure, have been made.” The project was judged runner-up in the environmental category and was awarded a “Highly Commended” Status.

The 82.8% reuse rate was achieved by utilising Ogilvie Ross’s UK wide network of social partners. Charities and community groups across the South of England, the Midlands and Scotland also benefited from the co-ordinated delivery of free office furniture.

This was an 8-week project to create and implement an ethical disposal programme for the redundant furniture from the old library building on campus. There were 500 chairs, 180 desks, 120 bespoke study booths and just over 5km of steel library shelving. In total there was 176 tonnes of furniture.

Ogilvie Ross was able to identify reuse opportunities on a local and international basis. These included school building projects in Sri Lanka, Moldova and various Eastern European locations. The shelving was also used by Mercy Ships on some of their floating hospitals in Africa. 170 tonnes was reused or recycled with only the MDF in the study booths being unsuitable for recycling.

City of Edinburgh Council commissioned Ogilvie Ross to design an ethical disposal programme to clear their historical furniture stores in Slateford Road. The 32,000sqft facility was full to capacity and needed to be emptied in readiness for a series of large-scale relocations due to a new headquarters building.

As part of the project Ogilvie Ross arranged the shipment of a container of educational furniture for use by various charities across Europe and Asia. One specific project saw 50 blackboards being donated to a schools building programme in Sri Lanka. The success of the initial ethical clearance led to Ogilvie Ross being commissioned to design the ethical disposal programme for 20,000+ items of furniture expected to be disposed of during the headquarters relocation.