When you buy used office furniture, or any used items, its obvious that you are saving money because its a lot cheaper than buying brand new, provided of course that the items is in good condition and would serve its purpose for an acceptable length of time.   But what do we mean when we say it also helps the environment?  First lets have a simple understand of Carbon Footprint.

Carbon footprint as defined by wikipedia as  “the total set of greenhouse gas emissions caused by an [individual, event, organisation, product] expressed as carbon dioxide equivalent.”  In a nutshell, its the amount of carbon dioxide produced in any activities including man’s. The magnitude will vary depending on the kind of activities being done., and as our modern scientist points out, too much greenhouse gas = climate change = bad for the earth.

Now, lets say you want to produce a wooden stool for commercial purposes.  So you will need raw materials, labor, electricity, transportation.  To acquire raw materials you will need machines and machines need fuel to run, so burnt fuel = carbon dioxide emission.  Labor needs to commute = carbon dioxide emission; electricity needs to be produced = carbon dioxide emission; and products needs to be transported = carbon dioxide emission.  So in every stages of producing that wooden stool, it produces carbon dioxide emissions.

We are not saying that manufacturing is bad because it produces a lots of carbon dioxide emissions.  What we are saying is that its prudent to produce what we only need.  If things are still usable why throw it away? It will save you money, and you help the environment.