Around 850 staff from the Brigade’s old HQ moved to a new building at Union Street, Southwark earlier this year. With the old furniture unsuitable for the open plan environment of the new offices, the Brigade needed to find a way of disposing of around 6,000 items of furniture.
Landfill or incineration was not an option, so the Brigade’s Procurement department struck a deal with Office Assembly Services Ltd (OAS), who are working with Ogilvie Ross to relocate furniture through Transform Office Furniture, a Scottish community sector business, which has now found ways of reusing or recycling all of the furniture.
As part of the Greater London Authority, the Brigade also needed to ensure that the scheme met the Mayor of London’s Responsible Procurement policy. This ensures that the Brigade, in making procurement decisions, considers the environmental impact, encourages a diverse base of suppliers and works with companies who themselves adopt fair employment practices.
The Brigade was highly commended for the scheme at the prestigious SDUK 08 Sustainable Development Award ceremony at the QEII Conference Centre, Westminster yesterday (March 6).
Val Shawcross, Chair of the London Fire and Emergency Planning Authority, which runs the Brigade, said: “This project is yet more evidence of our commitment to being an environmentally conscious, socially responsible organisation. With greener fire stations and vehicles also now a reality, staff really are leading the way for other public organisations.”
Simon Laidlaw, CEO of Dundee Cyrenians, which owns Transform, said: "The London Fire Brigade has recognised that collaboration between the public, private and social sectors can bring very real benefits in terms of social well-being, environmental performance and financial management. All of the furniture will be used to fulfil reuse contracts within local authorities, small businesses and our social partners.”
Note to editors:
The Brigade’s green achievements have included:
• Winning a number of awards, including the City of London Corporation’s Sustainable City Award in 2007
• Introducing a major green programme which includes fitting fire stations with solar panels, wind turbines and other sustainable technologies and ‘good housekeeping’ to reduce energy usage – saving so far £350k per year
• Innovative waste and recycling schemes from a London wide waste contract to making fashion belts out of recycled fire hoses
• Replacing the Brigade’s operational vehicle fleet with less polluting vehicles to meet the new Low Emission Zone standards.
Members of the media can obtain further information from the press office on:
telephone number: 020 8536 5922
email: press@london-fire.gov.uk
