Green-Works

Last updated
GreenWorks
Industry Recycling
Founded2000 (2000)
Headquarters Hoxton, United Kingdom
Products Furniture
Website www.green-works.co.uk

Green-Works is a British charity that attempts to reduce waste by encouraging the reuse of office furniture. Unused furniture sent to Green-Works by other UK-based organizations is resold typically at a lower price. In 2011, Green-Works was taken over by London Re-use Limited.

Contents

History

The company started off in 2000 with a £400 capital and a van. [1] In 2007, its turn-over was £2.1 million. [2]

In the Autumn of 2011 Green-Works was taken over by London Re-use Limited and now forms the commercial division of that organisation.

Social impact

In 2006, DELCE Primary School had purchased new furniture for its reception area, as well as other furniture for staff. They had purchased it at an affordable price without being detrimental to the education of children.[ citation needed ]

Since starting up in 2000, Green-Works has taken more than 60,000 tonnes of furniture. When a product cannot be sold, it is dismantled and recycled. This procedure has given Green-Works a coveted Queen's Award. Green-Works has saved around £2.5 million from others buying their recycled materials. [3]

Green-Works, along with NGO Construction & Development Partnership (CODEP), and Build on Books (BoB) delivered 200,000 books to 100 schools in Waterloo, Sierra Leone, helping illiterate children in the country. [4] A further 500,000 books are to be delivered in 2010 to enhance the 'book to person' ratio in the country. [5]

Green-Works also donates furniture to other projects.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sierra Leone</span> Country on the southwest coast of West Africa

Sierra Leone, officially the Republic of Sierra Leone, is a country on the southwest coast of West Africa. It shares its southeastern border with Liberia, and the northern half of the nation is surrounded by Guinea. Covering a total area of 71,740 km2 (27,699 sq mi), Sierra Leone has a tropical climate, with diverse environments ranging from savanna to rainforests. The country has a population of 7,092,113 as of the 2015 census. Freetown is the capital and largest city. The country is divided into five administrative regions, which are subdivided into 16 districts.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Economy of Sierra Leone</span>

The economy of Sierra Leone is $4.082 billion by gross domestic product as of 2018. Since the end of the Sierra Leone Civil War in 2002, the economy is gradually recovering with a gross domestic product growth rate between 4 and 7%. In 2008 it in PPP ranked between 147th by World Bank, and 153rd by CIA, largest in the world.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Republic of Sierra Leone Armed Forces</span> Combined armed forces of Sierra Leone

The Republic of Sierra Leone Armed Forces are the armed forces of Sierra Leone, responsible for the territorial security of Sierra Leone's borders and defending the national interests of Sierra Leone, within the framework of the 1991 Sierra Leone Constitution and International laws. The armed forces were formed after independence in 1961, on the basis of elements of the former British Royal West African Frontier Force, then present in the Sierra Leone Colony and Protectorate.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Blood diamond</span> Diamonds mined in a war zone and sold to finance conflict

Blood diamonds are diamonds mined in a war zone and sold to finance an insurgency, an invading army's war efforts, terrorism, or a warlord's activity. The term is used to highlight the negative consequences of the diamond trade in certain areas, or to label an individual diamond as having come from such an area. Diamonds mined during the 20th–21st century civil wars in Angola, Ivory Coast, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Guinea, and Guinea-Bissau have been given the label. The term conflict resource refers to analogous situations involving other natural resources. Blood diamonds can also be smuggled by organized crime syndicates so that they could be sold on the black market.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Charles Taylor (Liberian politician)</span> President of Liberia from 1997 to 2003

Charles McArthur Ghankay Taylor is a Liberian former politician and convicted war criminal who served as the 22nd president of Liberia from 2 August 1997 until his resignation on 11 August 2003 as a result of the Second Liberian Civil War and growing international pressure.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Used good</span> Item that is not new being sold or transferred

Used goods, also known as secondhand goods, are any item of personal property offered for sale not as new, including metals in any form except coins that are legal tender, but excluding books, magazines, and postage stamps. Used goods may also be handed down, especially among family or close friends, as a hand-me-down.

Macmillan Publishers is a British publishing company traditionally considered to be one of the 'Big Five' English language publishers. Founded in London in 1843 by Scottish brothers Daniel and Alexander MacMillan, the firm would soon establish itself as a leading publisher in Britain. It published two of the best-known works of Victorian era children's literature, Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1865) and Rudyard Kipling's The Jungle Book (1894).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">British Home Stores</span> Former British department store chain

British Home Stores, commonly abbreviated to BHS and latterly legally styled BHS Ltd, was a British department store chain, primarily selling clothing and household items. In its later years, the company began to expand into furniture, electronics, entertainment, convenience groceries and fragrance and beauty products.

Chorion Limited was a multinational media production company with offices in London, New York, and Sydney. The company produced TV shows and feature films, and was best known for its portfolio of entertainment brands. These included children's characters such as Paddington Bear, Peter Rabbit, The Mr. Men, The Very Hungry Caterpillar, Olivia, Gaspard and Lisa and Noddy. The company also owned the rights to the Agatha Christie Estate, Raymond Chandler, and Georges Simenon.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Argos (retailer)</span> British catalogue retailer

Argos Limited is a British catalogue retailer operating in the United Kingdom and formerly in the Republic of Ireland, acquired by Sainsbury's supermarket chain in 2016. It was established in November 1972 and is named after the Greek city of Argos. The company trades both through physical shops and online, with 29 million yearly shop customers, and nearly a billion online visitors per annum. It has also franchised overseas to countries such as China.

The Sierra Leone Civil War (1991–2002), or the Sierra Leonean Civil War, was a civil war in Sierra Leone that began on 23 March 1991 when the Revolutionary United Front (RUF), with support from the special forces of Liberian dictator Charles Taylor's National Patriotic Front of Liberia (NPFL), intervened in Sierra Leone in an attempt to overthrow the Joseph Momoh government. The resulting civil war lasted 11 years, enveloping the country. It left over 50,000 dead.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Paul Cuffe</span> American businessman

Paul Cuffe, also known as Paul Cuffee was an African American businessman, whaler and abolitionist. Born free into a multiracial family on Cuttyhunk Island, Massachusetts, Cuffe became a successful merchant and sea captain. His mother, Ruth Moses, was a Wampanoag from Harwich, Cape Cod and his father an Ashanti captured as a child in West Africa and sold into slavery in Newport about 1720. In the mid-1740s, his father was manumitted by his Quaker owner, John Slocum. His parents married in 1747 in Dartmouth.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Land banking</span> Buying multiple parcels together for future use

Land banking is the practice of aggregating parcels of land for future sale or development.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Iluka Resources</span>

Iluka Resources is an Australian-based resources company, specialising in mineral sands exploration, project development, operations and marketing. Iluka is the largest producer of zircon and titanium dioxide–derived rutile and synthetic rutile globally. Iluka mines heavy mineral sands and separates the concentrate into its individual mineral constituents rutile, ilmenite, and zircon. Some of the ilmenite is then processed into synthetic rutile.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Recycling in the United Kingdom</span>

In 2015, 43.5% of the United Kingdom's municipal waste was recycled, composted or broken down by anaerobic digestion. The majority of recycling undertaken in the United Kingdom is done by statutory authorities, although commercial and industrial waste is chiefly processed by private companies. Local Authorities are responsible for the collection of municipal waste and operate contracts which are usually kerbside collection schemes. The Household Waste Recycling Act 2003 required local authorities in England to provide every household with a separate collection of at least two types of recyclable materials by 2010. Recycling policy is devolved to the administrations of Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales who set their own targets, but all statistics are reported to Eurostat.

Prostitution in Sierra Leone is legal and commonplace. Soliciting and 3rd party involvement are prohibited by the Sexual Offences Act 2012. UNAIDS estimate there are 240,000 prostitutes in the country. They are known locally as 'serpents' because of the hissing noise they use to attract clients.

The United Kingdom began a military intervention in Sierra Leone on 7 May 2000 under the codename Operation Palliser. Although small numbers of British personnel had been deployed previously, Palliser was the first large-scale intervention by British forces in the Sierra Leone Civil War. In early May 2000, the Revolutionary United Front (RUF)—one of the main parties to the civil war—advanced on the country's capital, Freetown, prompting the British government to dispatch an "Operational Reconnaissance and Liaison Team" (ORLT) to prepare to evacuate foreign citizens. On 6 May, the RUF blocked the road connecting Freetown to the country's main airport, Lungi. The next day, British soldiers began to secure the airport and other areas essential to an evacuation. The majority of those who wished to leave were evacuated within the first two days of the operation, but many chose to stay following the arrival of British forces.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">E-book lending</span>

E-book lending or elending is a practice in which access to already-purchased downloads or online reads of e-books is made available on a time-limited basis to others. It works around the digital rights management built into online-store-published e-books by limiting access to a purchased e-book file to the borrower, resulting in loss of access to the file by the purchaser for the duration of the borrowing period.

Recycling Lives Limited, formerly Recycling Co Ltd and Preston Recycling Ltd, is a British recycling and waste management company headquartered in Preston, Lancashire. It has over 200 employees and £25 million turnover. The company founded a social welfare charity, Recycling Lives Charity, and is committed to undertaking only commercial ventures with a demonstrable charity or community benefit.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Virco</span> American furniture manufacturer

The Virco Manufacturing Corporation, more commonly known as Virco, is an American furniture manufacturer based in Torrance, California which focuses on providing products for educational markets. The principal products of the company include student desks and activity tables, school and office seating, computer stations, lightweight folding tables, and upholstered chairs.

References

  1. Frost, Maisha (2004). "We're sitting Pretty" (PDF). Daily Express.[ permanent dead link ]
  2. MacNamara, William (2008). "Changing people's lives while saving the planet" (PDF). Financial Times. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2009-02-19. Retrieved 2010-03-29.
  3. Robertson, Chiyo (6 October 2008). "Social entrepreneurs: green and good". BBC News.
  4. Turner, Rebecca (22 March 2010). "How UK recycling brings hope to one post-conflict African community". Guardian. London.
  5. Hearn, Rebecca (2010). "UK recycling creates libraries in Sierra Leone". The London Book Fair.