Background and circular economy

Established in 1996 Egans specialises in the removal, storage, and upcycling of commercial workstations and office furniture. Egans promotes high-quality sustainable used office workstations and office furniture as a sustainable alternative to new furniture. The Wise Office Furniture Program promotes high-quality sustainable second hand office workstations and office furniture as a sustainable alternative to new furniture.

Egans maximises value retention of used furniture to prolong their lifecycle. They demonstrate a championing level of maturity in the circular economy (25/25). The improvement of the company occurs through process monitoring and improvements in circular economy practices, raising awareness of their stakeholders on environmental impacts, and following a formalised environmental management system.

Drivers for circular economy adoption

The founder's personal values and passion for sustainability and a keen interest to transform the company be an industry leader drove Egans' adoption of the circular economy model. The business potential and financial benefits of following a circular model also drove the adoption. Growing market demand also motivated the adoption of a circular economy vision.

Circular economy practices adopted

Procurement of sustainable products
Local sourcing of crates and skates
Produced from recycled plastics
Reusable packing
Renewable electricity is used in warehousing
Reduction efficiency by installing LED lighting
The furniture that they collect are graded and resold directly
The furniture that is slightly damaged is repaired for resale
Usable parts from rejected furniture replace damaged parts of used furniture
The same type of furniture is assembled using undamaged material components from rejected furniture
A different form of furniture is assembled using undamaged material components from rejected furniture
Components with no commercial value are divided into materials and transferred to recyclers for resource recovery

Company changes with the adoption of circular economy

Egans started as an auctioneer who auctioned 1,000 pieces of furniture per week across Sydney and Melbourne. However, the system broke down as both sales and prices dropped. The reduced demand drove Egans to transition to upcycling second-hand furniture from 2005.

Barriers and challenges

Barriers and challenges include:

Securing used furniture for resale
People’s attitudes to reusing furniture
High transport costs of returning damaged products
Lack of consistent policy and regulation to drive a circular economy
Non-enforcement of existing policies that supports a circular economy

Critical success factors for circular economy

Critical success factors include:

Vision and commitment of the founder
Developing a viable business model
Circularity built-in at all stages
Persistence in the circular journey
Digitalisation
Educating the workforce
Openness to learn
Collaboration and knowledge sharing with suppliers/customers
Support and buy-in from customers
Changing purchasing managers' mindset via education and engagement

Benefits of adopting a circular economy

Egans have been able to grow the company and gain economic benefits by adopting the circular economy model, while also creating a better culture and feel-good environment. Externally they have developed and retained an appreciative customer base, and subsequently gained brand awareness and value. Being able to provide high quality restored furniture at a lower cost (compared to new furniture) has provided a competitive edge.