Decommission Program
Everyday individuals, small businesses and corporations contribute to the production and accumulation of waste, pollution, and greenhouse gas emissions in Canada. Each year, millions of tonnes of office furniture is sent to landfills around the world as businesses move, downsize, or upgrade their office spaces. Landfills in Canada are one of the most significant contributors to greenhouse gas emissions, as waste product breaks down at an incredibly slow rate. The culture of fast furniture has only increased lifetime GHG emissions of office furniture through unsustainable materials, production, and intercontinental shipping.
Our decommission projects aim to reduce the negative environmental impacts of the furniture industry. With recycling at the heart of this carbon offset program and a goal to divert as much waste as possible from landfill, Refurb Canada provides customers with an environmentally responsible opportunity to participate in the fight against climate change.
At Refurb Canada, we firmly believe in corporate social responsibility (CSR) and in managing the social, environmental, and economic effects of our operations responsibly and in line with public expectations.
With this in mind, we have created a program to assist our clients in the proper decommissioning of their old and excess office furniture. This program helps others, promotes reduce, reuse, recycle theories, supports infrastructure, diverts from landfill, and reduces greenhouse gases; thus, creating a carbon-neutral footprint for each project.
Each project starts with a complete review of the scope of work required to remove the product from a customer’s site. We then estimate tonnage for all products being removed, and a quote for equipment and labour is created. This quote includes a detailed breakdown of how
products are properly allocated to reduce any landfill impact. All pertinent information
showing your company’s corporate social responsibility landfill diversion rate will be provided
at the end of each project.
These areas of allocation are:
Repurpose
Products that can be donated to local charities, companies, churches, and individuals. Charitable donation receipts may be available.
Reuse
Products that will be reused or redeployed by the customer.
Recycle
Products that can be processed through a recycling program.
Infrastructure
Product that can be used to create electricity for community infrastructure.
Resell
Products that can be sold to companies or individuals prior to removal. Any sales will be applied as a credit against the final invoice unless the product value is greater than the decommission quote, in which case payment to the customer will be made.
Products in each allotment area will be tagged and quantified by amount, weight and approximate GHG measurements to illustrate rates of diversion from landfill and carbon. All pertinent information showing your company’s corporate social responsibility landfill diversion rate will be provided at the end of each project.
We realize that achieving a 100% diversion rate is a difficult task and that we will need to send some product to the landfill. Our goal is to be able to provide this service to our customers at a zero GHG output to create carbon neutrality. All tonnage that goes to landfill will be offset by our 4EverGreenTree Program, which will, through Tree Canada, plant approximately 4 trees per tonne of waste.
Environment is no one’s property to destroy; it’s everyone’s responsibility to protect.
The only way forward, if we are going to improve the quality of the environment, is to get everybody involved.
We don’t have to sacrifice a strong economy for a healthy environment.
