Sustainable Furniture Procurement at Dalhousie University

Abstract

Research was conducted by 5 Dalhousie Students in the SUST 3502 Campus as a Living Laboratory Course pertaining to sustainable furniture procurement at Dalhousie. The current problem at Dalhousie lies in the lack of overall dedication to sustainable furniture procurement. While awareness is somewhat limited to the importance of purchasing sustainable furniture in certain departments, an overarching set of guidelines is not in place to ensure and enforce the purchasing department’s decisions. This results in furniture being purchased from various companies with no intentional consideration given to sustainability. The research was conducted in both primary and secondary ways. The primary research consisted of interviews with professionals working in the field of procurement and sustainable furniture. The 6 interviews gave us a wealth of insight into furniture procurement and provided structure for the secondary research conducted for our study. The goal of this study was to learn about the ways in which Dalhousie can improve its furniture procurement policy as it relates to sustainability. The purpose of the project was to elect a set of criteria for a Request for Proposal (RFP) that could be drafted and used by Dalhousie. The results of this research are listed in this report. A discussion of the findings and their relevance was included to complement the report, along with a conclusion of the findings and recommendations for future action.