When a company moves in, the reflex is to buy new: chairs in plastic film, cardboard smell, manufacturer’s warranty. At Zecoworking we made the opposite choice: all 53 chairs in the space are 100% refurbished Steelcase. Not to cut corners: because it is, by far, the smarter choice. Here is the demonstration.
Why new furniture is an ecological blind spot
Everyone scrutinises heating kWh and forgets that an entire floor’s fit-out, chairs, tables, cabinets, partitions, is manufactured, shipped, then too often skipped at the next rotation. A quality office chair is precisely the ideal reuse product: near-indestructible steel and aluminium frame, replaceable wear parts, fully dismountable mechanics. Throwing it away to buy the same one again means paying twice for the same material.
Our chairs, concretely
The space runs 40 Steelcase Think and 13 Steelcase Please, restored by Tertio, a refurbished office-furniture specialist based in Chambourcy, west of Paris: a short loop from take-back to second life. What the manufacturer’s own product sheets say:
What the Steelcase product sheets say
Translation: chairs designed from day one to last, to be taken apart and to circulate again. By taking them refurbished we extend their first life instead of triggering a new production run; and on the distant day they retire, 95 to 99% of their material goes back into the loop.
« Fine, but the comfort? »
The right question, and the answer is simple: a refurbished Think or Please is still a high-end ergonomic chair, adjustable in depth, tension and height, the same one sold new for several hundred euros. Refurbishing replaces what wears out; the mechanics and the ergonomics do not age. Our members sit on them eight hours a day: none has asked for new ones.
Beyond the chairs
The same logic runs through the rest of the space: reused tables and metal cabinets, and contractors chosen nearby, from Ecolabel cleaning (Puteaux) to ventilation (Massy). It is one of the 7 criteria of our checklist for genuinely sustainable coworking; the energy numbers are in our meter-in-hand comparison.
The best test is still to come and sit down. Book a visit of our Courbevoie offices: judge refurbished comfort for yourself, 10 minutes from La Défense.