Case study: circular office relocation for Nokia in Kraków

Project context

Nokia was refurbishing its office in Kraków. Hundreds of items of old equipment remained on the existing premises, and the company needed to remove them from the first part of the spacewithin two months. The potential disposal costs exceeded PLN 200,000. While seeking more economical and environmentally friendly alternatives, the project manager at Sodexo approached Rebench.

Digital inventory as the key to success

The process began with a detailed inventory of the existing equipment. Using the Rebench App, we digitized inventory data for over 1,200 pieces of furniture located on two office floors within just two days. Each item was assigned a QR code, enabling easy identification, condition assessment, and pricing.

Thanks to this identification process, 130 items of furniture in very good condition were relocated to other Nokia offices. This was the first tactic to reduce environmental impact – reuse!

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Employee resale campaign

As the main alternative to disposal, we proposed reselling unnecessary furniture to the company’s closest community – its employees. Think of it as Too Good To Go for interior furnishings.

We conducted a fully digital furniture resale campaign that allowed employees to reserve items of interest using QR codes. Administrators had real-time access to data, which significantly streamlined the entire process:

1. Employees could reserve one item from each category and then, subject to availability, make additional reservations.
2. An employee would enter a room, select a piece of furniture, scan the QR code leading to a page with item details, and enter their information. The item was then marked with a reservation sticker to indicate it had been reserved.
3. On coordinated collection days, employees picked up the items they had previously purchased.

Employee interest exceeded all expectations, and thanks to a single technology platform, wesaved Sodexo a significant amount of administrative work.

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Social impact and employee engagement

The initiative was met with huge interest among Nokia employees – 72% of the equipment found new owners within just a few hours of the reservation launch. This shows that pro-environmental actions can also build team engagement and positively impact a company’s image.

Tangible environmental and economic results

Environmental savings

Thanks to Rebench’s actions, approximately three-quarters of the inventoried items were saved, resulting in:

• a reduction of waste by 27,555 kg that would otherwise have ended up in landfill;
• the avoidance of 39,672 kg of carbon footprint associated with the production of newfurniture, equivalent to burning 14,752 litres of petrol.

Economic benefits

We reduced waste disposal costs estimated at PLN 200,000. At the same time, the company gained value from resold furniture and saved money by relocating items to other offices. The remaining items – those in the poorest condition – were directed to selective, certified recycling.

The Circular Office Relocation project at Nokia’s offices in Kraków shows that technology combined with the principles of the circular economy can deliver measurable financial, environmental, and social results.

Thanks to cooperation with Rebench, Nokia minimized waste, reduced costs, and significantly lowered its environmental impact – while Sodexo carried out the process quickly and efficiently, with access to data ready for reporting.

This is another step towards a more sustainable future, where companies focus on responsible management of their office and real estate resources.

Rebench as a tool for implementing “reuse” in organizations

Thanks to the Rebench digital platform, companies can manage the lifecycle of their office assets – furniture, AV/IT equipment, and other resources – from regular inventory and reuse programmes across locations, through servicing, to fast redistribution options: resale to B2B partners, employee sales, refurbishment, or donation.

The Circular Office Relocation process at Nokia’s offices is a model example of how technology can support the implementation of circular processes.