Telent

Reconomy Connect, a Reconomy specialist brand, partnered with Telent Technology Services to generate social, environmental, and commercial value from the company’s used office furniture, supporting Telent’s wider ESG targets.

By designing a donation and reuse scheme and partnering with the charity Waste to Wonder, Reconomy Connect ensured redundant furniture reached communities that genuinely needed it, while keeping thousands of kilograms of stock out of landfill and incineration.

About the partnership

Reconomy Connect and its customer, Telent Technology Services, collaborated to generate social, environmental, and commercial value from the company’s used office furniture. The solution was developed by Reconomy Connect to further support Telent in delivering against its ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) targets, which include zero waste to landfill by 2025 and a 50% reduction in carbon by 2030.

It quickly became apparent that a donation scheme for the digital infrastructure provider’s used office furniture would deliver tangible benefits for multiple parties.

Building the reuse scheme

To facilitate the reuse scheme, Reconomy Connect established a partnership with the charity Waste to Wonder, whose entire business model is shaped around best practice in ethics and environmental sustainability. Its aims are to minimise waste, maximise educational opportunities, and support disadvantaged communities around the world through redistributed equipment.

The partnership has ensured that furniture stock reaches people who really need it, including Global Orphans Empowerment Academy, Community Transport, and Mokwe Development Association in Cameroon, and Africa First in Senegal. In the UK, furniture was also distributed to The Salvation Army and Community Transport Furniture, which helps people on low incomes, and those in transitional stages of life, with quality furniture to furnish their homes.

How it works

When Telent has a project suitable for the scheme, it contacts the Reconomy Connect team, who implement a simple four-stage process to survey, clear, and redistribute the stock, and provide a detailed report:

• A full site audit is undertaken with photographs, and an inventory populated.
• The goods and inventory are assessed to see where they can provide the greatest benefit.
• Stock is carefully removed, and the premises left in pristine condition.
• The goods are redistributed through Waste to Wonder’s charity network to those in need.

Any damaged stock that cannot be repaired is recycled and used for spare parts. Waste to Wonder then reports back on the CO2 saving, the social value generated, and the weight of stock prevented from going to landfill or incineration.

The results

The partnership has grown quickly over the last twelve months, with six large projects completed to date. Goods redistributed include desks, chairs, drawers, pedestals, whiteboards, stationery, cutlery, cabinets, and IT equipment.

• Over £66,000 of social value generated (calculated using Social Value UK’s Calculation Tool).
• A saving of over 64,000kg of carbon (calculated using the Comprehensive Environmental Data Archive, CEDA).
• More than 25,000kg of redundant stock prevented from being lost forever in landfill or incinerators.

The success of the project has seen Reconomy Connect exploring other redundant items within Telent’s portfolio that could help change lives, while also rolling the scheme out to other clients.