Few pieces of furniture are built as tough as office furniture. Designed for heavy-duty use, they're typically crafted from premium materials like steel, wood, and leather. Yet far too often, when their working life ends, they're simply discarded. Eurostat estimates that around ten million tonnes of furniture from businesses and consumers are sent to landfills or incinerators across EU member states every year. That number may well be climbing—as offices worldwide are being reimagined and work cultures shift toward New Work models.

Dutch office and contract furniture manufacturer Vepa sees this as a missed opportunity—and is doing something about it. At their headquarters in Emmen, they've established the "Vepa Circulair Center," a dedicated facility where office furniture is professionally restored and brought back to life. The sprawling hall houses sample pieces, customer castoffs, order mistakes, and showroom displays awaiting renovation. Here, pieces are technically serviced, cleaned, sanded, refinished, and given a fresh start in new offices. "This is a market segment with tremendous growth potential," says Marco Schoneveld, Managing Director Germany. "We're fundamentally manufacturers, not used furniture dealers, but refurbished furniture is integral to our sustainability vision—a comprehensive commitment to circular economy principles and zero waste."

Across both Dutch facilities, Vepa has embraced closed-loop production. Offcuts become new furniture, panel material, or renewable energy. Smart optimization software and precision programming mean wood sawing generates minimal scrap to begin with. Fabric remnants are transformed into packaging materials, while metal waste is remelted for new components or reimagined as striking privacy screens. At the Emmen site, Vepa is pioneering fresh materials too—hemp for seat shells and table surfaces, with an experimental hemp field even planted on the factory grounds.

Since 1951, Vepa has manufactured furniture in Hoogeveen and Emmen—from chairs and tables to lab furniture, steel office systems, and library shelving. Today, their range spans all categories of office, project, and care furniture. A striking testament to modern sustainable design: the headquarters of financial services firm Nationale Nederlanden in Rotterdam. Here, refurbished pieces and recycled materials—reclaimed dock wood, a salvaged gym floor, innovative materials like hemp and mushroom mycelium—create stunning, work-inspiring office spaces that are 100% sustainable. Through strategic reuse, the project kept 2,722 tonnes of waste out of landfills.

On display is an extraordinary creation from Vepa: the Whale Boardroom Table, developed in partnership with Amsterdam-based design studio Lama Concept, accompanied by coordinating chairs. Inspired by the silhouette of a whale breaking the surface—its blowhole and graceful contours unmistakable—the piece captures nature's elegance in furniture form. Sturdy legs of PEFC-certified oak echo the whale's skeletal structure, while the tabletop is wrapped in heat-pressed PET felt that exudes understated luxury. What makes this piece truly remarkable is what lies within: the tabletop's core is composed entirely of recycled PET bottles, sourced from Amsterdam's historic canals, as is the felt itself. Equally compelling is the "Blue Finn" chair collection, whose seats and backrests are crafted from 100% Bluewrap—a blue, fibrous wrapping material originally designed for sterile surgical instruments that would otherwise end up in landfills.

www.vepa.de

Photos: Barbara Brubacher