Dilapidation Project

Challenge

As part of our on-going partnership, Solis were commissioned by our client to Project Manage the handover of an office and warehouse building that they were leasing. Every project that we undertake sustainability is an important factor as we want to reuse, repurpose, and recycle as many materials from the project as possible to lower our carbon emissions and support local businesses / charities at the same time.

Solution

To enable our technicians to start the maintenance required within the building, the building contents had to moved out to create space. The upper level of the building housed 4 office cubicles each kitted out with chairs, desks, electrical equipment, storage filling cabinets etc everything a working office space would require. The furniture was in excellent condition and various parts of it hadn’t be used due to the offices becoming operational at the start of Covid-19. The first port of call for us was to reach out to local businesses / charities to see if they would benefit from the furniture. This would prevent the furniture going to landfill and hopefully support local businesses in the process.

Impact

As we already have a great working relationship with First Steps Future Training we reached out to George and the team to see if they could use / donate the furniture. George and the team were delighted to come and pick-up most of the excess furniture which they will repurpose / recycle and reuse with the support from their trainee's and donate it to local charities / nursing homes and nurseries. They will create different on-going projects upcycling and repurposing the raw materials for their trainees to complete within their purpose-built training academy at Bridgeton. This in turn will provide real life projects for their trainees to work on and develop their skill sets to help prepare them for the world of work. FARE Scotland are another local charity that we have worked in partnership with. FARE Scotland is a voluntary organisation working within disadvantaged communities throughout Central Scotland. FARE strive to raise people's aspirations, encourage them to become more involved in their communities, create opportunities for personal development and equip them with the skills required to deal with the demands of 21st century life. After reaching out via various social channels to find a new home for the left-over boardroom chairs, Karen from FARE responded. Karen explained that FARE, are a charity that delivers employability courses to young people and parents and would be delighted to give the chairs a new home, if they are still available. Karen arranged for Nathan from FARE to come along and pick-up 25 of the boardroom chairs which would be going to a lovely new home and help FARE to increase the class numbers of their employability courses now that they had more chairs. FARE are delighted with the new chairs and so were the trainees. During the project a plasma TV was part of the items to be discarded due to the screen having a pixel issue at the very left-hand side of the screen which when is use wasn’t overly noticeable. The TV was 52 inches so big enough for the pixelation not to affect the viewing of the TV. To find a home for the TV the first stop again was George and the team at First Steps as they work closely with so many other charities and a good home would be found for the TV. Straight away George collected the TV and delivered it to Royston Youth Action. The Royston Youth Action is committed to enabling the people of Royston to identify and meet their own needs through dialogue and self-help. As a community organisation the vision is to have a strong organisation that builds on its successes, supporting the development of individuals through a process of empowerment underpinned by education and experience. Sharon from Royston Youth Action was delighted with the new TV which arrived just in time for the after-school gaming activities and couldn’t wait for the young people to see the new addition. After FARE took as many chairs as they required, we still had 15 boardroom chairs to find a home for and as was decided at the start of the project no furniture was going to landfill. By reaching out via our social media channels a start-up coffee shop company got in touch. Garry requested the last remaining 15 chairs for his new venture and we were only too happy to donate them. Once the coffee shop is up and running, we will pay Garry a visit to see how the new furniture is looking. Garry explained that the chairs reduced his start-up costs massively and was so thankfully for the generous donation.

Services

As part of Scotland's circular economy route map to 2025, which includes setting a target to send a maximum of 5% of waste to landfill by 2025. This reduction in waste to landfill will reduce emissions. As part of Soil’s circular economy model, all furniture from Drumhead Road has been successful saved from landfill and donated to local charities and companies within the local community. As part of our on-going sustainability mission all materials will be reused, recycled, or repurposed to help develop other projects. From our donations to local charities within the area of the warehouse we have rescued 14 wooden desks, 18 office chairs, 40 board room chairs, 8 cabinets, 1 plasma TV, 6 cupboards, 14 desk drawers and 1 large fridge from going to landfill. These office items in total saved 2169 kg of carbon going to landfill. Giving back to the community is a huge passion of ours and it’s something that we are very proud of, we will always reach out to help others rather than landfill items.