How ECO360® achieves NET ZERO
How ECO360® achieves NET ZERO

How ECO360® achieves NET ZERO

Compared with an equivalent workstation, ECO360® cardboard desk makes a big impact

ECO360® is designed to be fully recyclable and is constantly developing to improve environmental benefit. The latest design features fully cardboard construction, removing the acrylic top and plastic cable port and replacing them with paper-based alternatives.

Opt for a carbon-saving, sustainable office

Now we’ve crunched the numbers to find out quite how much carbon you can save by opting for a sustainable desk in your workplace…

ECO360® has many uses, but is primarily for long-term temporary environments, such as construction site offices and short-term arrangements where desks would otherwise be purchased and then require disposal after a few years.

based on a 1600×800 budget range cantilever frame, MFC desk that would typically be supplied in the same environment and the best available data, we discovered a significant saving.

office-desk-carbon-embodied-co2-value-mfc-steel-sustainability
embodied carbon of traditional MFC/steel desk

According to this calculation, the alternative product attracts an embodied carbon value of 38kg.

By comparison, cardboard is an incredibly efficient material. Not only is ECO360® produced from cardboard which has a recycled content of approximately 70%, but the structure is inherently lighter than that of its counterparts, accounting for an even more efficient saving.

embodied-carbon-of-cardboard-desk-sustainable-office
embodied carbon of ECO360® cardboard desk

At 5.2kg CO2e, ECO360® provides a 32.8kg (86.3%) embodied carbon saving!

…but that’s not the end of the story…

As standard, delivery and CO2e of ECO360® desks is generously carbon offset via a UK tree-planting scheme making them net carbon ZERO!

So, for an installation of 50 desks, there would be a saving of 1,900kg CO2e compared with traditional workstations.

That’s nearly 2 tonnes CO2!

Where did we get all these figures from?

Of course, it’s difficult to be absolutely certain on individual product properties with varying source and end-use locations and multiple manufacturing routes, however we have worked conservatively with best-available, most up-to-date data. For example, the figure for the CO2e of cardboard comes from a recent study by the Research Institute of Sweden into European cardboard packaging. ECO360® is manufactured by a leading FSC® certified UK packaging manufacturer using materials, machinery and techniques found throughout the cardboard packaging industry.

Figures for MFC/steel desk are taken up to the point of material components and do not include manufacture of the desk itself, which would likely increase the CO2e value further.

CO2e value references:

MFC board – 0.4665kg CO2e/kg: VTT Research; T115 Carbon footprint for building products, 2013 ed. Antti Ruuska [6. Chipboard (Melamine Faced) – Europe; page 31] accessed 18-08-2020

Mild steel – 1.850kg CO2e/kg: World Steel; Our Indicators, 2018 (Environmental Performance 1.) accessed 18-08-2020

Cardboard – 0.326kg CO2e/kg: Twosides.info; The Carbon Footprint of Packaging, 2020 Sam Upton [The Final Figure]