Sustainable, Eco-Friendly Office Furniture Solutions

Currently, discarded furniture is sent to landfills either partially or wholly, or is incinerated for energy production. The process of discarding waste in landfills releases a toxic host of greenhouse gases into the underlying soil as well as any toxins that may be contained in the furnishings themselves including formaldehyde, benzene, or ethylene glycol. Consequently, the process of incinerating the furniture pieces poses a similar threat by releasing these chemicals along with large amounts of carbon dioxide into the air. This widespread practice contributes to global air pollution and the reduction of the general welfare of the public.

Pa-Ri Materia Oy is committed to reducing such pollution by restoring and reusing outdated or otherwise unwanted office furniture. We propose a collaboration product that will scale our efforts to be able to rescue more discarded materials that are otherwise destined for landfills or incinerators to help reduce global waste.

Our challenge fits primarily into the circular economy as the principal focus of Pa-Ri Materia Oy is to rescue, reuse, and restore the utility of landfill-bound office furnishings.

Given the shared desire of humans from all over the world to possess and tools and fittings that would in some way improve their space or quality of life, furniture and its disposal is a universal problem with consequences for plants, animals, and humans alike. If fitting disposal remains unchecked, the world can expect to see a rise in the already devastating amounts of greenhouse gases, polluted soils, deforestation, and other airborne toxins. This comes in addition to the consumption of raw materials and water that is used to manufacture furniture from scratch instead of reusing what has already been made.

In 2017 alone, it has been calculated that Pa-Ri has contributed to a calculated raw material savings of approximately 13 million kg, and over 210 million kg of clean water when compared to producing the same volume of new furniture. Implementing our tactics on a worldwide scale could lead to significant drops in air pollution, which primarily affects countries like Bangladesh, Pakistan, Mongolia, and India. 

Historically, Pa-Ri Materia Oy has served businesses of all sizes and scales with more sustainable office fittings that would still maintain the aesthetic integrity of their workspace. We’ve found that while families do occasionally throw out furniture due to growing children and other life changes, offices were among the biggest sources of discarded fittings. This is primarily because of changes in office location, wear and tear by both clients and staff, as well as cosmetic redesign to reinforce the perception of growth. By working with companies who are among the leading causes for furniture waste, we can make meaningful strides in the overall wellbeing and air quality for all of Finland’s residents and beyond.

Our clients have a very basic principle need. They want to create a professional and visually pleasing office aesthetic. We work with office managers, CEOs, and other decision makers to educate them on the benefits of office sustainability while informing them that they do not, in fact, need newly manufactured furniture, but that they can meet their basic need of a professional looking workspace with eco-friendly options that reduce waste, maintain their durability, and provide the exact look and feel they require with Pa-Ri Materia Oy.

Pa-Ri Materia Oy’s contributing solution to the circular economy is to increase the scale of our current efforts to upcycle used furniture for better long–term sustainability. We provide a variety of safe, affordable, and sustainable office fittings that have been restored from prior use and reupholstered/redesigned to save on excessive consumption of virgin natural resources.

By offering upcycled common office necessities like chairs, desks, lounges, etc. Pa-Ri Materia Oy can work to reduce waste, decrease global air pollution, and minimize the impact caused by manufacturing new materials. Small and corporate offices are among the biggest contributors to furniture waste. By serving one of the largest feeding sources of fitting waste and incineration, we can eliminate much of the waste-related problems before they negatively impact our environment.

Currently, Pa-Ri Materia Oy digitally redesigns furniture in-house and prepares each piece to be reupholstered. We use various pieces of rescued fabric, furniture pieces, and other reusable items to restore older pieces to like new status.

Pa-Ri Materia Oy is innovative for its unique approach to matching companies to office fittings that promote a circular economy. Traditionally, the process of buying furniture has been very linear:

1. Manufacturers would source raw materials for new product production
2. The furniture is produced using those materials plus any additional purchased parts or technology
3. The furniture products are sold to a furniture brand where they will be held in a warehouse
4. The end customer buys the furniture in-store or online
5. The furniture is discarded sometime after either in a landfill or for energy production

Pa-Ri Materia Oy disrupts this linear model with a circular one on a large scale. Thanks to our current processes, the furniture can be reused by many companies, many times relieving the world of the burden of additional air pollution, soil pollution, and natural resource depletion.

There is a huge potential in digitalization of our business. At the moment the technologies from logistics to financial administration are quite tradional and also used by many other industries.

Our solution utilizes internet market places etc. for aquisition of used office furniture. 

In the process of refurbishing we have actually designed and manufactured physical tools that are needed for some special tasks.

Given the success of Pa-Ri Materia Oy in Finland, this concept has already been tried and tested for success in real world conditions. This concept has, and does continue to work as we carry out our mission to pair companies with circularly sustainable options on a daily basis.

So far, office furniture equivalent to roughly a thousand truckloads were forwarded for reuse in 2017. We have reason to believe that we can continue this trend and even scale it to several more markets to help increase our raw material and water savings from 13 million kg and 210 million kg respectively, to well over 20 million kg and 230 million kg respectively.

Currently, Pa-Ri Materia Oy is serving approximately 15,000 people in Finland. Given our previous success, strong brand presence, and almost exclusive hold on the market share we hope to be able to serve 20% more people (approximately 18,000) in a year. In five years, we expect that number to rise to well over 36,000 people Finland only based on the same estimation model.

With Global expansion we hope hunreds of thousands of people in coming years.

Within the next year, we are interested in increasing our resource savings from 13 million kg to 22 million kg in raw materials (69.2%), and from 210 million kg to 300 million kg (42.9%) of clean water savings (see #4). Within the next 24 months, we intend to expand our efforts internationally beginning in Ukraine.

Ultimately, the goal of Pa-Ri Materia Oy is to reach more offices, warehouses, corporate spaces, and ultimately, homes to give rise to a more accessible and economically feasible circular economy for all.

Within the next five years, it is our hope that our expansion efforts will create less waste and more job opportunities for interested locals of Finland. Through careful and environmentally conscious scaling, Pa-Ri Materia Oy can reach more landfill- or incinerator-bound materials that can be effectively reused to reduce natural resource consumption.

Currently, Pa-Ri Materia Oy faces financial barriers to expansion. These barriers limit our abilities to secure more trucks and hire more skilled personnel for the hands-on work of reupholstering and design.

Financial barriers also limit our ability to hire legal personnel necessary for an international expansion of this scale.

Additional barriers include the perceptual barriers of acquiring repurposed furniture. Typically, we’ve found that people have stigmatized furniture that has been repurposed. They believe the items to be less durable and lower quality, despite having no basis for these claims. This presents us with the minor challenge of changing the perception of reused office furniture.

The financial barrier does not prevent us from running the organization’s day to day tasks, however, it does limit growth and the speed of our sustainable impact. We hope to succeed in the Solve Challenge for Circular Economy to help scale our efforts. Without it, we will have to continue down a slower path to meet our mission globally.

As for the perceptual barrier, we believe we can change this perception with well-targeted marketing. Though this presents another financial hurdle, our experience indicates that generally speaking, people are open to eco-friendly fitting options so long as they are shown evidence of its durability and quality.

We have 60 people working for us.

Indirectly through contractors etc 200.

Since our launch in 1997, Pa-Ri Materia Oy has garnered more than enough experience and understanding of the market and repurposed products to be able to deliver this solution to the masses. We’ve built our entire business model around this solution and have expanded well enough to serve nearly all of Finland.

Given our unique understanding of this industry, our in-depth knowledge of its inner workings, and our sustainable approach to growth and scale, we believe that our firm is the best equipped to use the tried and tested concepts we’ve developed over the last two decades to a larger, global audience.

Currently, we are partnered with upholsters, moving companies, designers, carpenters, and other skilled laborers who we may have to collaborate with on occasion.

The principal focus of Pa-Ri Materia Oy is to rescue, reuse, and restore the utility of landfill-bound office furnishings.

Simply: At large scale aquire used office furniture, restore and sell.

At this time, Pa-Ri Materia Oy is already financially stable. We’ve grown by 50% every year for the last 5 years, and have increased our turnover by 15 times.

Our primary objective for applying to Solve is to secure funding and networking opportunities that will increase our reach.

We believe that our operating model and concept can be expanded to benefit a larger global audience. Though we are a for-profit corporation, Pa-Ri Materia Oy was born of the intention to leave a legacy larger than ourselves, for the world that we would all day leave behind.

Our concept is simple, but are impact is complex. And with Solve as a partner, we hope to scale at a faster rate by creating more jobs, collecting more whole or partial materials, and create them using sustainable methods that leave behind a smaller carbon footprint. It is our hope that Solve can also provide feedback on our current model and perhaps even afford us with new opportunities to work with parties interested in furthering our mission.

We believe that our operating model and concept can be expanded to benefit a larger global audience. Though we are a for-profit corporation, Pa-Ri Materia Oy was born of the intention to leave a legacy larger than ourselves, for the world that we would all day leave behind.

Our concept is simple, but are impact is complex. And with he GM Prize on Circular Economy, we hope to scale at a faster rate by creating more jobs, collecting more whole or partial materials, and create them using sustainable methods that leave behind a smaller carbon footprint.