Office Furniture Now! - the Blog

Premium Used and Refurbished Ergonomic Task/Executive Chairs

Premium Used & Refurbished Chairs Save Thousands $$ - Buy Pre-Owned Allsteel White Leather Conference Chair $395 Each Black arms and legs. 8 chairs in stock for immediate delivery. --------------------------------------------------------

High End Traditional Leather Chair $395 Each High-Back Conference Chair. Brandy leather seat and back. Cherry wood arms and base. Classic Spin Lift. 9 chairs in stock for immediate delivery. --------------------------------------------------------

Sit On It "Glove" Black Leather Chair $450 Each High Back Conference Chair. Tilt and Height Adjustments.  Button in the center of the seat.   20 chairs in stock for immediate delivery. --------------------------------------------------------

Knoll RPM Ergonomic Task Chairs $250 Each Executive High-Back Task Chair. Very Comfortable. Adjustable Height, Seat, Arms, and Tilt. 20 chairs in stock for immediate delivery. --------------------------------------------------------   Haworth Improv Ergonomic Chairs $250 Each This chair is one of the best workhorse commercial grade task chairs ever made.  Fully adjustable Back, Arms, Seat Tension and Height. Refurbished in a several commercial grade fabric colors.  50+  chairs in stock for immediate delivery. --------------------------------------------------------

Happy Easter from Office Furniture NOW!

We have office chairs for your every need!

Just In! New Pre-Owned Inventory from Office Furniture NOW!

Paoli Veneer Maple Bow Desk Sets

                                 $1,500 per Set

Cherry Veneer L-Desk & Return

$800 per Set

Desk  72" Wide X  and 36" Deep
Return 36" Wide
with 1 Box/Box/File and 1 File/File Storage Pedestals

               5 sets in stock for immediate delivery.

Chair NOT included

Help the Environment - Buy Used & Refurbished Office Furniture

Day in and day out, since Office Furniture NOW! was incorporated fifteen years ago, the company has been reducing the amount of solid waste – including hazardous waste – that has been going to the landfill.  By selling pre-owned office furniture - including chairs, filing cabinets, desks and cubicles – we have kept this office furniture from filling up the landfill.  Reusing office furniture “as is” or buying refurbished office furniture (pre-owned office furniture that has been upgraded with new fabric, paint and/or accessories) is a financially, aesthetically and environmentally wise option.

 

Office Furniture NOW's warehouse is stuffed full of great used and refurbished office furniture from which to select.

Office Furniture NOW! is a resource to which businesses can sell the furniture they no longer want and from which they can buy replacement furniture that another business no longer wants.  For example, when Whole Foods built its new corporate headquarters, we bought used workstations from them that have been sold over the years to 29 different companies.

Huge amounts of used office furniture goes to the landfill every day.  Office Furniture NOW! keeps furniture like this out of the landfill AND saves you money.

The office furniture business is a bulky business.  A task chair takes up about 15 cubic feet of space; a desk set about 100 cubic feet. AND there’s a huge amount of cardboard and packaging materials that arrives with each new desk or chair.  Office Furniture NOW! reduces the size of our landfill in two ways.

1. We reduce the volume of trash we to the landfill.

• When we have no choice but to send a piece of office furniture to the landfill, we first compact this solid waste with our own compactor. By doing this, we squash the office furniture to 25% of its original volume.  Since opening our doors in 1997, Office Furniture NOW! has kept approximately 29,000 cubic feet of solid waste out of the landfill through our trash compacting efforts. 

• Additionally, we responsibly recycle when we can.  We compact metal and sell it to a commercial recycler, we recycle packaging materials (cardboard, foam and shrink wrap) from new office furniture that we buy and resell.

2. We divert materials from the landfill by selling used office furniture, either “as is” or “refurbished."

• The environmental problems created by office furniture are many.  An industry trade group, OFDA (Office Furniture Distributors Association), states that “The EPA has estimated that approximately 3 million tons of office furniture and furnishings are discarded each year…..Re-manufacturing just 40 cubicles diverts one tractor-trailer load of furniture from a landfill.”Since incorporating Office Furniture NOW! in 1997, we’ve resold 12,284 “as is” or “refurbished” cubicles.  That means we’ve diverted 307 tractor trailer loads of just cubicles from the landfill.  Add other pre-owned items like desks, credenzas, chairs, reception stations, conference tables and filing cabinets that we’ve sold adds up to a lot of office furniture kept out of our local landfill.

3. We reduce the amount of pollution caused by manufacturing new office furniture.

• Besides the benefit of reducing the volume of materials sent to the landfill, recycling office furniture reduces the pollution caused by the manufacturing process.  Carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, sulfur oxides, nitrous oxides, volatile organic compounds (VOCs), and particulate matter are all reduced by recycling office furniture.  By reducing the amounts of these contaminants, global warming, acid rain, photochemical smog, and other forms of air pollution are reduced. Air pollution is a universal problem that knows no city, state or national boundaries. Recycling office furniture reduces the amount of new office furniture that must be produced, reducing air pollution and greenhouse gases from these manufacturing processes.

• OFDA also states that “The amount of labor and energy required to alter an existing product during remanufacturing is 85 to 95 percent less than that required to manufacture a new product……For each pound of natural resources used in remanufacturing, 5-9 pounds of original materials are conserved!..... Recycling office furniture “as is” or refurbishing it saves the enormous amounts of energy required for the production of new office furniture - particularly because metals (which form the inner structure of office cubicles and the majority of file cabinets) are kept out of the resmelting process.

Office Furniture NOW! is a hub of activity;  we buy pre-owned furniture from all over the country and from local Austin companies and resell it “as is” or refurbish it prior to reselling it to our clients.  Since 1997 we have purchased used office furniture from 251 companies who do business in Austin and have sold pre-owned or refurbished office furniture to 2,458 companies and individuals.  As the above chart shows, thousands of office workers are sitting in pre-owned chairs, desks and cubicles purchased from Office Furniture NOW!
          

Earn LEED Points with Office Furniture NOW's products

What is "LEED"?
"LEED" is rating/certification systems developed and administered by the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC).  LEED is an acronym for "Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design".  The LEED program is a voluntary, consensus-based national standard for developing and recognizing high-performance, sustainable buildings. Members of the USGBC representing all segments of the building industry developed LEED and contribute to its evolution.

General LEED logo	LEED "Gold" is the second highest certification level.	LEED "Platinum" is the highest certification level.

How does LEED apply to office furniture?
"LEED for Commercial Interiors" (formerly LEED-CI) is a rating system that addresses the specifics of tenant spaces primarily in office and institutional buildings. LEED for Commercial Interiors provides the opportunity for building tenants to design and certify high performance, healthy, durable, affordable, and environmentally sound workplaces. This is the category of LEED certification most directly applicable to the office furniture industry, i.e. for products purchased from Office Furniture NOW!

Where do I get more information about LEED?
More information on these programs is available on the USGBC website.

Areas LEED ratings address
Based on accepted energy and environmental principles, LEED emphasizes state of the art strategies for sustainable site development, water efficiency, energy and atmosphere, materials & resources, and indoor environmental quality. There is also recognition for innovation in design which rewards strategies that exceed or are not covered in the existing rating system. Finally, additional recognition can be achieved for designing to meet regional requirements.

LEED rating systems applicable to office furniture purchases.
Besides LEED for Commercial Interiors projects, there are several other LEED rating systems through which our clients may earn LEED points when they make purchases from Office Furniture NOW!  There are LEED programs for:

• New Construction
• Core & Shell
• Schools
• Neighborhood Development
• Retail
• Healthcare
• Homes and Existing Buildings: Operations & Maintenance

Specific categories to earn LEED points when buying from Office Furniture NOW!
Office Furniture NOW! products can support several areas of the LEED for Commercial Interiors requirements. Specifically, these are:

• Materials reuse
• Recycled content
• Regional materials                                     
• Rapidly renewable materials
• Certified wood
• Low-emitting materials
• Daylight and views, and
• Innovation in design

All LEED points are based on the total project scope, so the actual point contribution of Office Furniture NOW! to a project will vary on a case-by-case basis. Office Furniture NOW!  has staff to assist in evaluating specific project contributions, but this will ultimately be the responsibility of each project's LEED coordinator upon submission of the certification application.

How can I use Office Furniture NOW! to earn LEED certification ?
Office Furniture NOW!  products can support points for LEED certification, since many of the requirements are readily met by Office Furniture NOW! The question of to what degree Office Furniture NOW!  can assist in meeting LEED will always be based on case-by-case evaluation of each specific project and the design and planning of the furniture. Office Furniture NOW!  can support enough LEED for Commercial Interiors points to be substantial for any Commercial Interior project pursuing certification.


How many points are required for certification?
The following table shows the number of points (of 100 total) required for various levels of LEED for Commercial Interiors certification:

• Certified: 40-49 points
• Silver: 50-59 points
• Gold: 60-79 points
• Platinum: 80 and above points

Which specific points can Office Furniture NOW!  support?
The following represent specific LEED for Commercial Interiors point possibilities for purchases from Office Furniture NOW! :

1 point*: MR Credit 3.2 Materials Reuse - Furniture and Furnishings

• Requirements: Use salvaged, refurbished or used furniture and furnishings for 30% of the total furniture and furnishings budget.

• Remarks : Office Furniture NOW!  workstation replacement surfaces or table tops can be integrated with existing system frames, panels and table bases to support this point.

*Potential of additional point for exemplary performance at 60%.

1-2 points*: MR Credit 4 Recycled Content

• Requirements: Use materials with recycled content so the sum of postconsumer recycled content plus one-half of the pre-consumer (also termed post-industrial) content equals at least 10% (1 point) or 20% (2 points) of the total value of the materials.

• Remarks: Percentage determined by weight.

*Potential of additional point for exemplary performance at 30% content or above

Buying refurbished rather than new cubicles can significantly impact your LEED points.	By selecting low panels for your cubicles, you allow more natural daylight into your offices, which is a LEED point-earning strategy.

1 - 2 point*: MR Credit 5 Regional Materials
Requirement:

• Option 1 (1 point): Use a minimum of 20% regionally manufactured materials. Option 2 (2 points): Meet option 1 requirements plus use a minimum of 10% regionally extracted, harvested or recovered manufactured materials.
• Remarks: Measured in dollar value. These points can be supported with appropriate Office Furniture Now! material choices. NOTE: These points are only available for projects within 500 miles of central Texas.

*Potential of additional point for exemplary performance at 20% content for option 2.

1 point*: MR Credit 6 Rapidly Renewable Materials

• Requirement: Use minimum 5% rapidly renewable materials, defined as materials made from plants that are typically harvested within a 10-year cycle or less.
• Remarks: Measured in dollar value. This point can be supported with appropriate Office Furniture NOW! material choices.

*Potential of additional point for exemplary performance at 10%

1 point*: MR Credit 7 Certified Wood

• Requirements: Use minimum 50% wood-based materials certified in accordance with Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) guidelines.
• Remarks: Measured in dollar value. Office Furniture NOW!  can support this point with appropriate manufacturer material choices.

*Potential of additional point for exemplary performance at 95%.

1 point: IEQ Credit 4.5 Low-Emitting Materials - Systems Furniture and Seating

• Requirements: Use systems furniture and office seating that is Greenguard certified or registered or meet similar emissions testing as specified in LEED for Commercial Interiors document.
• Remarks: Office Furniture NOW!  sells many products (e.g., seating and cubicle panels) that meet this requirement. Additionally, we can refurbish cubicles and seating using these materials. The policy of Office Furniture NOW!  is to source manufacturers' products which promote a healthy work environment regardless of LEED requirements.

Carefully selecting fabrics on your chairs and cubicle panels can lead to both healthier employees and LEED points.	Bamboo is an example of a rapidly renewing material and just one that you can buy from Office Furniture NOW!

Using Greenguard certified products from Office Furniture NOW! can help you earn LEED points for good indoor air quality.	Buying office furniture made of wood certified in accordance with Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) guidelines can help earn LEEDS certification.

1 point*: IEQ Credit 8.2 Daylight and Views, Views for Seated Spaces

• Requirement: Views in 90% or more of all regularly occupied spaces have direct line of sight to outside environment (75% for private offices).
• Remarks: Strategies include using lower partition heights, transparent/translucent panels, and open space design.  Office Furniture NOW's Furniture Consultants are well-versed in these LEEDS-earning options.

*Potential of additional point for exemplary performance.

1 point: ID Credit 1 Innovation in Design

• Requirements: Identify intent of proposed innovation in sustainable building strategies and practices not specifically addressed by LEED for Commercial Interiors.
• Remarks: This is an opportunity for generating points above and beyond the rating system - new materials or strategies and/or exceptional performance are possible targets.

*Potential of additional point for exemplary performance at 30% content or above.

Trends in Office Workspaces

A lot of recent research by major office furniture manufacturers has been directed at the changes of the workplace due to  innovations in technology and the coming to the workforce of new generations of people.  Following is a synopsis of part of a white paper by Knoll entitled “Generational Preferences: A Glimpse into the Future Office:”

For the first time in history, there are four generations at work at the same time:

• Silent Generation: born 1929 - 1945
• Baby Boomers: born 1946 - 1964
• Generation X: born 1965 - 1978
• Generation Y: born 1979 - 1997

Recently, Knoll surveyed close to 15,500 employees representing four generations, in 40 countries, on their ratings of the importance of six workspace features and capabilities. The results from this research provide a glimpse into the needs of the future workforce.

Most and Least Important Workspace Features by Generation

Generation        Most Important                Least Important
Silent                  Physical comfort              Acoustic privacy
Boomer              1. Acoustic privacy         Engaging workplace                        2. Meeting spaces
Generation X    1. Engaging workplace     Acoustic privacy                                               2. Security
Generation Y     Engaging workplace        Meeting Spaces

Definitions of Workspace Features
Knoll has identified a set of six broad workspace capabilities and features central to the experience of today’s office workers.

Engaging Workplace	How well the overall office provides an engaging workplace (feeling of belonging, ability to connect with others, appropriate image of the company, welcoming environment.
Support for Casual Interaction	How well the design and layout of the overall office facilities casual interaction and communication throughout space.
Quality of Meeting Spaces	The right number, size and location of meeting spaces and ability to reserve and occupy meeting space when needed.
Physical Comfort	Comfort provided by the furniture and equipment within the primary workspace.
Acoustic Privacy	Ability to assess spaces that provide privacy from being overheard when needed.
Safety and Security	How safe and secure the employee feels in the building and within his or her primary workspace.

All four generations rate the office workspace as “important”—and they rate it about equally. However, each generation rates the importance of six key workspace features in a different order. Generation Y rates the importance of having an “engaging workplace” highest, and “quality of meeting rooms” lowest. Conversely, Baby Boomers rate these two features almost opposite of how Generation Y rates them. These changing priorities will drive a fundamental shift in office design, away from merely supporting work function and process. Future workspace will need to provide a consistent, engaging, work “experience” that supports a wide choice of work styles and seamless flow of work, regardless of location. If you’d like to read Knoll’s complete article, click here.

All the above information points to How to Choose Collaborative Office Furniture!

Look for furniture that

• Supports casual interaction and communication with others through appropriate furniture and technology
• Creates a lot of the right kinds of meeting spaces in the right places
• Is comfortable
• Allows for private conversations

Here is a photographic album of furniture that is COLLABORATIVE with captions pointing out features designed for TODAY'S workplace:

Readily accessible work tables and seating that comfortably accommodates from two to ten people makes for great collaboration!	Seating with built in work tables supports casual yet creative work styles.

 

The ability to set up work spaces on the spur-of-the-moment, anywhere! is empowering to the Y Generation.	Flexible and mobile tables can be configured to match any meeting requirement on an impromptu basis.

 

Easy access to technology is a must. Configuring tables so all attendees have a clear view to a video screen makes videoconferencing comfortable and efficient.	The ready availability of casual conferencing areas is essential.

Proven Comfort and Ergonomics – the Steelcase LEAP Chair

 

Given the number of hours most of us spend in office chairs in front of a computer, a good task chair is an investment in both the health of our backs and in our comfort. One office chair that we always try to keep in stock at Office Furniture NOW! is the Steelcase Leap Chair. Because we are not a Steelcase dealer, all our Leap Chairs are Pre-Owned “As is” or Refurbished. When we get a call because a company is selling their office furniture, we always show up to bid on Steelcase Leap Chairs. And here’s why…………………

They have six ergonomic features that contribute to improved well-being and productivity:

1. The chair has a “Live Back”. The back of the chair has little slats (look at the picture above) which can change the shape of the chair’s back to support your entire spine.

2. Upper and Lower back controls which, by the way, adjust while you are seated. The upper controls let you adjust the amount of “push back” desired while reclining, regardless of your body size. The lower back control lets your lower back maintain its natural curve by setting a constant amount of firmness.

3. The chair’s arms telescope, pivot, and adjust up and down for the optimum support of your wrists, forearms, shoulders and neck.

4. The seat glides forward as you recline so you can stay oriented to your work, allowing more varied postures – which is healthy for your spine.

5. The angle of the front seat edge is changeable, enabling you to ease the pressure on your thighs and widen the angle between your legs and torso without feeling like you’re sliding out of your chair.

6. Adjustable seat depth accommodates different body shapes for longterm comfort.

There is an article on the Steelcase website touting the benefits of buying a Steelcase Leap chair. Steelcase’s claim that sitting in the Leap chair enables IRS workers to collect 17.8% more taxes than those sitting in a different chair seems a little(!) farfetched but its claim that you’ll be more comfortable sitting in a Leap chair all day than sitting in most other chairs, seems convincing.

The C.E.O. of our company, Bill Coon, who could sit in any chair he wants, sits in a Pre-Owned “As Is” Steelcase LEAP chair. You can ask Bill how he likes it (512.444.4395 or bill@OfficeFurnitureNOW.com). You can also come try out the chair for yourself in our showroom. At this writing we have over 50 Leap chairs in stock. They last a really long time and are an extremely heavy-duty chair; so buying them pre-owned or refurbished will buy you years of body comfort. You can buy them at Office Furniture NOW! refurbished with brand new fabric for $445 or “as is” for $395. Either way, it beats the new price of over $1200.