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The conversation about offices has shifted. No one’s asking if we need them anymore. The real questions are how much space, what kind of space, and how to keep it from becoming a cost anchor when needs change.
Think about it this way: we can all technically work out at home. But there’s a reason gyms still exist — they deliver something you can’t replicate on your own. Offices are the same. Remote setups can cover the basics, but offices are where connection, collaboration, and innovation gain real traction.
Which brings us to the blind spot: while companies put energy into measuring office size and purpose, they often ignore the systems that quietly drain ROI. Furniture, for example, is still treated as a one-time purchase — when in reality it’s one of the biggest sources of hidden, recurring cost. The U.S. EPA estimates American businesses send 8.5–12 million tons of office furniture to landfill each year, with disposal fees topping $450 million annually. Globally, that number will reach 48 million tonnes in 2025.
That’s why this isn’t a conversation about price tags. It’s about the total cost of office furniture — the full lifecycle of what happens after install.
On paper, purchase decisions look straightforward: a single CapEx event, depreciated over time. But facility managers know better. What doesn’t show up in procurement spreadsheets are the “aftermath” costs:
Flexibility — or the lack of it — is the multiplier. When offices need to scale, reconfigure, or contract, owned furniture turns price into cost.
At the 2025 IFMA World Workplace Conference, CORT shared a lifecycle comparison table that facility managers can use to surface hidden costs. Instead of treating purchase as the end of the job, it shows how different models perform across the entire lifecycle:
Example: 100 ANSI/BIFMA-compliant 6×4 workstations + 100 ergonomic task chairs
| Strategic Factor | Why It Matters | Lifecycle Category | New Purchase | Used Purchase | Purchase Buyback | FaaS (Rental) |
| Project has a defined end | Mega-build budgets often stop at commissioning; furniture lifecycle rarely funded past install. | Upfront Price | $250,000 | $150,000 | Credit offsets; still CapEx | Low / Predictable — recurring OpEx |
| Furniture is a cost, not an investment | 12.1M tons/year U.S. furniture waste; $450M+ tipping fees (EPA 2018). | Delivery & Install | $15,000 | $15,000 | Removal bundled; charges vary | Streamlined — one vendor, one bill |
| Flexibility in strategy | FaaS keeps 95%+ of furniture in circulation; reduces Scope 3 & re-procurement costs. | Redesign / Reconfig | $150,000 | $150,000 | One-time credit; no flex | Built-in process — simplified & predictable |
| Business growth / restructures | Scale inventory up/down without stranded assets. | Storage & Inventory / RFID | $36,000/year | $36,000/year | Take-back reduces storage | Integrated storage — assets managed by partner |
| New tech / WFH shifts | Remote work leaves 20–40% of furniture idle; flexible procurement avoids overbuying. | Moving Between Sites | $40,000 | $40,000 | Tied to trade-in; not for moves | Streamlined relocation — single vendor |
| Obsolescence planning | Assets lose value long before physical end-of-life without a reuse plan. | Replacement Costs | $275,000 (with inflation) | $165,000 (with inflation) | Credit offsets replacement; limited stock | Predictable, contracted rate |
| End-of-life ownership | Without clear owner for decom, burden falls to facility teams — unplanned costs, delays, ESG penalties. | Obsolescence / Change | Full burden | Full burden | Shared at trade-in; otherwise burden | Shared / None — integrated into service |
| Waste diversion targets | Landfill is costliest ESG outcome; avoiding it protects budgets & metrics. | Decommissioning | $30,000 | $30,000 | Green exit; remanufacture/donate | Streamlined exit — planned upfront |
| Social impact & brand value | Donation/resale keeps assets in use, supports community, delivers ESG wins. | Disposal / Landfill | $6,100 | $6,100 | Resale/remanufacture/donate | Avoided / Managed — ESG-optimized |
| Donation % | 10–30% typical | 10–30% typical | Maximized via remanufacture | Maximized by provider | ||
| TOTAL (5-year est.) | $802,100+ | $592,100+ | Offsets; still CapEx | FaaS avoids ~$500K in lifecycle costs |
Note: ‘Streamlined’ means costs are not eliminated but are consolidated under one vendor and one bill — delivering operational and financial flexibility without hidden vendors or surprise fees.
This isn’t just numbers. It’s lived reality.
The divergence between price and cost shows up not only in models but in real projects.
According to cost modeling using IFMA and BOMA benchmarks in 2025, furnishing a 20,000 sq ft office over three years comes in at about $188,000 under purchase. When comparing this to CORT FaaS, the costs are under $135,000, once depreciation, maintenance, and disposal are factored. Disposal itself averages $5.30 per employee, per event, based on BOMA and Thumbtack commercial cleanout data from 2025. And the U.S. EPA’s WARM model (2023) estimates that 6–10% of a furniture item’s lifecycle emissions come from end-of-life disposal, while the Ellen MacArthur Foundation reports that reuse and refurbishment can cut those emissions by 50–70%.
But those numbers become more tangible when you look at how a real company lived them. One CORT customer, an engineering firm planning a two-year project, faced a clear choice: purchase or rent. Buying would have cost them $585,000 upfront, locking capital into an asset they knew they wouldn’t need long-term. Renting, by contrast, cost $112,000 in year one and $96,000 in year two — a savings of more than $400,000. Beyond the balance sheet, they avoided the headaches of depreciation, resale losses, storage fees, and decommissioning. When the project wrapped, the furniture simply went back.
That’s the total cost of office furniture in practice: not just abstract percentages or modelled estimates, but dollars saved, risks avoided, and teams freed from aftermath.
The takeaway is simple: price is a number; cost is a system.
Organizations that run procurement decisions through a lifecycle lens routinely uncover six-figure savings — not because the furniture itself is cheaper, but because the model absorbs the changes every office faces. Traditional ownership locks capital into non-revenue generating assets and leaves facility managers carrying the aftermath when plans shift. Service-based models, by contrast, keep cash fluid, risk contained, and the office adaptable.
In a world where three-year roadmaps can collapse in a single quarter, agility isn’t optional — it’s protection.
When you look at the lifecycle table, one pattern is clear: purchase models — new, used, even buyback — push cost downstream. Service-based models absorb it. CORT’s Furniture-as-a-Service (FaaS) was built to make that shift measurable.
Financially, it converts CapEx into predictable OpEx. That matters because furniture ownership ties up capital in non-revenue generating assets — assets that often depreciate faster than they’re used. FaaS avoids that trap. The engineering firm highlighted earlier, preserved more than $400,000 of cash flow over two years because their furniture costs flexed with their project timeline instead of being locked in upfront.
Operationally, FaaS eliminates the stranded-asset spiral. Instead of improvising with barcode wands or emergency storage contracts when projects shift, facilities teams can scale up, down, or sideways with one accountable partner. The outcome is not fewer problems — it’s fewer surprises.
Strategically, FaaS builds resilience. CORT’s whitepaper shows that each asset in its system is redeployed three to six times, refurbished between cycles, and directed to resale or donation at end-of-life. That loop keeps over 95% of product out of landfill and produces 66% fewer greenhouse gas emissions than traditional purchase. For organizations reporting Scope 3, that’s not just optics — it’s credibility.
In other words: CORT FaaS isn’t only an environmental win. It’s a system designed to turn total cost into managed cost — stabilizing budgets, protecting teams from aftermath, and keeping offices fluid enough to match shifting business needs.
Every furniture decision is really two decisions: the price on the bid, and the cost you inherit after. The way to surface the difference is simple — run the options through the lifecycle table.
Ask three questions before the next RFP is signed:
That test reframes the choice you’re making: a price or a pattern.
The lifecycle table used in CORT’s IFMA World Workplace session is a tool to start that exercise. CORT’s Furniture-as-a-Service™ model goes one step further by building the answers into the contract: predictable OpEx, an owned return path, and assets that keep moving rather than becoming stranded.
If you’re ready to see how the math plays out in your own space, explore CORT’s Furniture-as-a-Service™ Calculator or visit the Office Furniture Rental page. Both let you test scenarios side by side and see how lifecycle planning changes the total cost of office furniture.
