RE:SOURCE

A pioneering social enterprise project bringing a dynamic professionalism and brand awareness to furniture recycling; reducing waste while providing low-cost goods for hard-pressed families.

Problem

How do you stem the tide of perfectly serviceable household goods flooding into Cornwall’s landfill sites?

Response

Create a centre combining the facilities to refurbish cast-off furniture and appliances with an attractive sales showroom to recycle them back into people’s homes.

Result

‘In just two years RE:SOURCE has become a self-sufficient enterprise. It employs up to 20 people, helps around 150 volunteers and trainees a year get back on their feet and into employment, and provides access to good-quality affordable furniture for a large number of families – some of them very disadvantaged. We think it has done pretty well.’ Jon Rolls, Chief Executive, ReZolve.

RE:SOURCE is just one among a variety of projects run by ReZolve, a social enterprise company based in Bodmin. They range from taking the national lead on a real nappy programme to managing Cornwall’s Environmental Skills Network, providing training and support for ‘green’ sector companies. Although very diverse, the projects share common aims; safeguarding the environment and increasing sustainability by reducing, reusing and recycling waste.

RE:SOURCE itself was two years in development, and attracted significant funding from the Big Lottery, European investment and local councils.

From the outset, there was a vision; a strong internal philosophy that it should challenge any preconceptions about recycling or welfare projects. Great attention was paid to appearance. Strong design qualities were part of the original blueprint and Matt Hocking, of Leap Design (who is running Dott Cornwall’s Eco Design Challenge schools project) was engaged to establish the branding.
 

We wanted to make sure that when you come in the shopping experience has a passion and excitement to it. All the signage, from the price tickets to the car park signs, are quirky eco-productions; the way-finding, for instance is made out of recycled bicycle tyres – but sharp, sophisticated and fun.

Matt Hocking

Matt says: “We wanted to make sure that when you come in the shopping experience has a passion and excitement to it. All the signage, from the price tickets to the car park signs, are quirky eco-productions; the way-finding, for instance is made out of recycled bicycle tyres – but sharp, sophisticated and fun.

“Essentially, we wanted to make it stand out from the crowd – most businesses in the furniture reuse line are fairly mundane.”
 
This is anything but. There is a fully-equipped electrical repair workshop and a purpose-built showroom staffed by knowledgeable, well-trained people in uniform with name badges selling quality products. Jon Rolls explains: ‘We wanted to create something different; a really good and attractive customer experience, somewhere that anybody would feel happy shopping. People had to walk in and feel that they were being served better than in, say, Ikea. So we brought a full commercial branding to bear, to raise awareness and raise people’s expectations of what we can do.’

The message clearly spread quickly. Since it opened in 2007, the stock has been flying out of the door. The customer base is very broad - after all, everybody loves a bargain – and those on benefits get a further 20 per cent reduction on the ticket prices.
Jon says: ‘One of the biggest challenges is supply; it is actually a crazy business model. One day we have lots of sofas in, the next, none – but demand is high across the range. We could sell our washing machines three times over.’
Some of the stock is donated, some arrives via Council’s bulky waste collection services, and some is bought in through the Furniture Reuse Network, which sources seconds and ends of lines. Many of the white goods are warranty returns from the major electrical manufacturer Beko. Global manufacturing realities mean that these would otherwise be scrapped, so the arrangement to pass them on to RE:SOURCE is a cost effective option for both.

Every month RE:SOURCE processes around 18 tonnes of furniture and electrical goods which would otherwise have gone for landfill. In terms of volume, that’s the equivalent of about five double-decker busses a month, 60 a year; a big hole left empty.
It all makes eminent carbon sense too. Reusing an electrical appliance rather than buying another new one saves about eight tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions, because of the high levels of embedded energy in the manufacturing process.

All of those appliances – including fridges, freezers, washing machines, dryers, TV and audio, computers – go through a thorough overhaul in the electrical workshop. Most are refurbished and sold. Anything beyond repair is cannibalised for spare parts and stripped down for recycling.

John Penpraze, the Workshop Manager, says: ‘Our target is 20-25 items a day into the showroom; all cleaned, repaired, tested and safety checked, with all fittings, full documentation and usually a warranty – just like new machines.’ The workshop is part-staffed by teams of volunteers and trainees, including unemployed people wishing to enhance their job prospects, ex-offenders and others going through drug rehab or with physical or mental disabilities.

James Mansfield, a 34 year old trainee, says: ‘They are great at teaching you things here. We are signed up on electrical courses, so you come away with certificates which all go towards your CV.’ James, who is battling long-term depression, works at RE:SOURCE two days a week and adds: ‘It helps, coming here – it is part of what I am now.’

Building on the experience gained with work placements, ReZolve has developed a training arm, working with partners such as Cornwall College to provide accredited courses, including NVQs. Jon Rolls is keen to extend that into renewable energy training. ‘It’s a logical step to link what we provide in our electrical workshop with the broader green agenda, by offering our workplace volunteers the opportunity to gain skills such as solar installation. ‘That would give them real hope of getting jobs in that technology sector at a time of huge growth.’

RE:SOURCE has also assisted disadvantaged people in other practical ways. In collaboration with two other charities, it won £50,000 of ‘People’s Millions’ funding in 2009 to provide ‘Starting Out’ packs of household equipment for formerly homeless people who had found accommodation but couldn’t afford to furnish it. Sally Eke, the Deputy Manager, says: ‘Many people wind up back on the streets because that is too big a deal for them. We were able to help 70 families in just three months, which was fantastic. They came in, chose what they needed free of charge, we delivered it and many of them volunteered here in return.’ 

Peter Davison, the RE:SOURCE Sales and Customer Service team leader, understands such families’ predicaments better than most. A former bank manager, he and his two children were made homeless following a difficult domestic situation. They were re-housed with no possessions, and he obtained their white goods through RE:SOURCE. ‘I was very grateful this place existed and offered to do some volunteer hours, and it went off from there.

‘Having been in that position I am very sympathetic to anyone walking in trying to start over. I know how terrifying it is.’ Peter not only found a job at RE:SOURCE – he also has a new partner he met working there. He and Debbie now have a baby daughter, Rebecca. ‘Coming here has re-shaped and changed my life.’

The income from RE:SOURCE has helped transform ReZolve itself into a largely self-supporting Social Enterprise company.

It has also provided an extremely effective promotional vehicle for ReZolve’s core ambition of raising environmental awareness and reducing waste. Jon says: ‘If we want to effect real change, big change – which is what’s needed – then we have to branch out and speak to the wider mass of people, and the branding and the communication of strong consistent messages through projects like RE:SOURCE is part of that.’