Move&Rent - Our sustainable commitments

It's no secret that we need to reduce our CO2 emissions as much as possible to try to limit global warming. And we, individuals and companies alike, have our share of responsibility in this collective effort.

Our commitment to a more responsible and inclusive economy has been anchored in the DNA of Move&Rent since 2012. Eighteen months ago, we decided to deal internally with all the issues related to sustainable development and CSR by recruiting a dedicated person. Our ambition was to structure our CSR approach, affirm our values and improve our daily practices. This is how Morgane, a sustainable development project manager, joined the team and now supports us in this endeavor.

A few months ago, we decided to go even further in our approach. We launched a huge project: the calculation of our first carbon footprint with Carbo. Our objective? To identify our main emission sources in 2020 and work on their sustainable reduction.

We have also signed the Climate Act: we are committed, along with 278 other companies (at the time of writing), to calculating our carbon footprint, transparently communicating on it and acting to reduce it.

We didn’t wait for the calculation of our first carbon footprint to act! Below you will find the different actions that are part of our daily life at Move&Rent.

The second life of furniture

Since the creation of Move&Rent in 2012, the main objectives of Stéphane and Stéphanie, the co-founders, have been the quality of our service and the full satisfaction of our customers.

Most of our clients, both professionals and private individuals, are regularly faced with a one-off need for new furniture: a move as part of a short-term contract, the display of a show flat as part of a property development, the rehousing of tenants by social housing providers during a construction period or in the event of a disaster, etc. In addition to these specific needs, our clients also call on our services for the entire management of the supply chain, from the subscription to the second life of the furniture, including installation, assembly and collection at the end of the contract. It is through this global ecosystem that our service makes sense.

Offering new furniture means we don't have large, polluting storage warehouses, we can limit the distance our furniture travels by sourcing it from our local partner shops (we don't have a Move&Rent lorry that crosses France to carry a piece of furniture from Lille to Marseille!) and we can extend the overall life of the furniture through its second life.

Did you know that the carbon footprint of a wardrobe amounts to 858kg of CO2 emitted during its entire life (including raw materials and end of life), making it one of the most polluting pieces of furniture (ADEME)? 858kg of CO2 is the equivalent of two round trips between Saint Nazaire and Amsterdam in a car with a thermal engine or one round trip between Nantes and Amsterdam by plane!

At Move&Rent, 100% of our furniture is given a second life. In 2020, more than 48 tons of furniture and household appliances passed through the hands of our assemblers and deliverers, which is the equivalent of 14 elephants! Over the last 9 years, broken or unusable products at the end of the rental period can be counted on the fingers of two hands. In this case, the furniture is recycled via Eco-mobilier. Defective household appliances are taken to the Envie network for repair if possible. We always have a solution for the different problems of second life or recycling of our products.

With our solution, you will no longer see this scene on the pavements of our cities (photo taken by Sébastien, our Country Manager, in Amsterdam):

Furniture in good condition, which is more than 99.99% of the cases at the end of the rental contract, finds a new life for, we hope, many years, with our network of partners specialised in second-hand goods or with associations such as Emmaüs, the Red Cross or Secours Populaire. On average, these pieces of furniture will benefit from an additional 5 to 25 years of life. In total, since 2012, we estimate that 40,000 products have been given a second life by Move&Rent.

Short circuit and last mile logistics

A large part of our know-how lies in optimising last mile logistics. 74% of our deliveries are made within 30km of our reception and furniture assembly areas. We always try to gather our deliveries to optimise the space of our trucks. Where possible, the orders are delivered by cargo bikes in Paris area thanks to our local partner Diligo. We now plan to develop and extend this offer so that as many as possible can benefit from it!

At the end of their rental contract, our furniture travels as little as possible. We always call on local associations and partners to give them a second life. Thus, 66% of our furniture finds a second life less than 40km from the place of rental.

Waste treatment

The furniture, generally delivered in a standard packaging, generates a significant amount of waste during assembly. Cardboard, plastic, polystyrene, screws and bolts... It is unthinkable for us to leave this topic aside! We ask all our service providers to sort waste and throw it away in dedicated areas so that it can be recycled. This is an issue on which we will be working in the coming weeks to be even more efficient.

Going further

Since April 2021, we have been working closely with IKEA Netherlands on a circular economy pilot project. IKEA Netherlands is the first branch of the Swedish chain to test furniture rental with the commitment of taking the furniture back and offering them a second life directly in their shops. It’s a world first!

We are aware that our model can be improved and we know that we still have a lot to do. We already supply Gautier Office and Dizy furniture (made in France for both brands, eco-designed for Dizy) for rent but, in the long term, we would like to expand our offer of local and eco-designed furniture. In addition, and to go further in our responsible approach, we are also thinking of drawing up a Charter of good “sustainable development practices” with our logistics partners. We are also trying to stay informed about subjects related to low-carbon deliveries: electric vehicles, bicycles, water transportation... We hope to see them develop and be able to extend our "clean" delivery options in the near future!

And why not making our model evolve and one day offering second-hand furniture for hire or buy? These are just some ideas, we'll see what the future holds...

And you, what are you doing to get better? Do you have any suggestions? Come and discuss the subject with morgane@moveandrent.com!