Food for Thought: Calculating the Impact of a Cubicle

Many voices in the industry are promoting the benefits of a circular approach to managing office furniture assets. One question we often hear is: 

“Circularity sounds great, but how can we show leadership the real, practical benefits of adopting circular solutions? How can we manage office furniture we no longer need in a way that truly supports our sustainability goals?” 

To make it simple, we’ve outlined the core circular principles of office asset management in resources like our Pragmatic Guide: 

• Avoid waste by reusing existing items rather than sending them to landfill 

• Extend the useful life of assets through refurbishment and remanufacturing 

• Choose remanufactured or refurbished furniture when you need inventory for reconfigurations or new spaces, delivering cost-effective and sustainable outcomes  

But how do we make these benefits feel real and practical? 

Take one of the most common items in any office: the cubicle. 

We were invited to host a Lunch & Learn for brokers, facilities teams, and property managers at a major CRE firm. The topic was “Optimizing the Workplace: Strategic Solutions to Decommissioning and Remanufacturing Office Furniture.” In that session, we used the Impact of a Cubicle to illustrate how circularity comes to life. 

Imagine a decommissioning project with dozens of cubicles to relocate. They might be dated, worn, or in need of resizing for a new configuration. Traditionally, the default would have been liquidation and disposal. But with a circular approach, these same assets can be refurbished, remanufactured, and reused, transforming what was once “waste” into valuable, sustainable workplace solutions. 

Let’s break down a single cubicle into its component parts:

If your decommissioning partner is going to break down items and try to recycle component parts, avoiding landfill wherever possible, there is a finite recoverability for optimal recycling.   

In an ideal circular world, component parts would not be discarded. They would be used to refurbish complete items like cubicles, rather than recycled only as raw materials. In the hands of experienced partners like TFX, these parts can be reassembled and restored into “as new” products, ready for reuse or resale. 

When you consider the impact of remanufacturing, refurbishing, and reusing just one cubicle, it becomes clear how powerful a circular mindset can be across large-scale decommissioning projects and office asset management as a whole. 

At TFX, we have even gone a step further by calculating the environmental impact down to CO₂ emissions, as demonstrated in the following example from a real client project. 

Now that is a statistic your management team can understand, especially in the context of sustainability goals. 

When you choose to reuse rather than buy new, not just with cubicles but across all office furniture purchases, TFX can help you achieve measurable circular targets relating to landfill diversion, overall energy saving and CO2 emission reductions.  

And the bonus? The cost benefits of remanufactured furniture: pennies on the dollar compared to new, refurbished to align with your corporate design standards, and backed by extended warranties, at least when TFX is your source 

Would your teams benefit from an overview of workplace optimization through circular solutions? Reach out to us at inquiry@tfxfurniture.com to arrange a session, either in person or virtually, and let us share our knowledge and passion for the subject.