How renting furniture can help reduce the impact on the environment

We are all becoming more mindful of our everyday impact on the environment, but you may be surprised to hear that renting furniture, when relocating, can also help reduce our impact on the environment verses alternative options. Here’s a few reasons why:

Helps to reduce waste

When relocating to a new home, essentials such as a bed, sofa and dining sets are needed from day one.

If you don’t rent the furniture then the temptation is to purchase more disposable items, that don’t last, and are potentially discarded after use.

Within our range we also offer arrival essentials to rent. These are good quality, durable items that alleviate the need for buying cheap, disposable equipment that may potentially go to landfill.

Helps to save resources

Every time an item of furniture is rented that is one less item requiring production, saving on the materials needed, such as wood, metal and upholstery.

We only purchase high quality, durable furniture and one piece would be used and rented multiple times and will still look like showroom quality.

It can reduce transportation

When relocating long distant from overseas, on a temporary basis, the alternative to renting furniture may be to ship existing items via air or sea. Both of these options have a higher environmental impact than simply renting furniture from within the country you will be residing.

The lifespan of the rental items

Naturally when we purchase furniture with the intention to rent, we will only buy good quality, durable products that not only look fantastic but will also last.

With this action we have a positive impact on the environment, as one good quality item could replace 2 or 3 lesser quality items being produced.

 Helps reduce carbon emissions

A report conducted by My Tool Shed (source https://www.energylivenews.com/2019/09/09/could-the-real-enemy-of-climate-change-turn-out-to-be-furniture/), suggests that the average piece of furniture generates approximately 47 kilogrammes of carbon dioxide equivalents, which is roughly the same amount of greenhouse gases produced by burning around 5.3 gallons of petrol.

So, furniture that is rented over a long period of time can really make a difference in the reduction of those emissions simply by reducing the number of items being produced.

Life after rental

All of our furniture will eventually come to the end of its rental life, at which point we don’t just throw it to landfill, we pass onto Cambridge ReUse (http://www.cambridgereuse.org.uk/) or sell, for a token amount, on to loving homes to continue to be used.

As our furniture rental business continues to evolve, we are committed to evolving with it and reviewing the actions that we can take both individually and as a business to help reduce our impact on the environment.