Ecofuni service expands, furthering circularity for office furniture

Mitsubishi Estate Co., Ltd. is expanding its office furniture collection and resale service, Ecofuni, as part of its efforts to promote a circular economy. The service launched in 2022, and focuses on reusing office furniture that would otherwise be discarded when office needs change. Mitsubishi Estate Property Management Co., Ltd. (MJPM) will take over operations to further develop the service starting October 2024.

“Ecofuni” emerged from Mitsubishi Estate’s “New Business Proposal System,” an initiative that encourages employees to propose ideas for new ventures. The service was developed after employees observed that many pieces of office furniture in good condition were being discarded. Ecofuni was designed to address this issue by offering a solution that promotes resource efficiency while providing office tenants with an alternative to disposal. The service collects unwanted office furniture from businesses, inspects and cleans the items, and then resells them as reused products.

With the service gaining recognition, MJPM will now manage Ecofuni as part of its overall property management services, thus expanding solutions across both office and commercial sectors, and strengthening tenant relationships and increase its range of service offerings. It currently operates showrooms at “Marunouchi Base” in the Marunouchi 2-chome Building and “Ikebukuro Base,” which is scheduled to close in spring 2025. Around 2,000 items, including chairs, desks, and cabinets, are on display at any given time.

MJPM also plans to introduce new services under the Ecofuni brand. These include “Ecofuni Furniture Cleaning,” which will offer cleaning services for office furniture owned by tenants, “Ecofuni GO,” a mobile event where office furniture, including chairs and phone booths, is displayed at various locations, allowing visitors to test and purchase items, and “Ecofuni Street,” set to launch in fall 2024, will feature temporary pop-up stores in vacant commercial spaces. The project will also feature displays of disassembled office chairs, highlighting the environmental benefits of reusing furniture, including the reduction of plastic waste.

Ecofurni was one of the projects featured in CIRCULAR TOKYO STARTUP. The “Ecofuni Street” initiative has also been selected for Tokyo’s “Social Implementation Project for the Realization of a Circular Economy” for 2024.