Bike New York was busy last month with the TD Bank Five Borough Tour, a 40 mile bike ride through New York City that brought 30,000 cyclists out. Good thing the Furniture Management experts at EthoSource were able to meet the tight deadline Bike New York established for getting their office furnished!
Bike New York is a nonprofit agency that encourages biking and bike safety through education and advocacy. Biking benefits the environment and the health of New York City, and Bike New York brings city-smart biking to the people of New York with classes, teaching materials, teacher training, and biking events.
As a nonprofit, Bike New York naturally wants to keep administrative costs down. As an organization with a mission to help the environment, they naturally want to keep their offices as green as possible . Working with EthoSource, a used office furniture company, allowed Bike New York to meet both these goals.
Choosing used office furniture lets organizations save as much as 70% on the costs of furnishing their offices. It also reduces an organization’s carbon footprint, since reusing quality goods is the most efficient form of recycling. Used office furniture saves the fuel that would be used to import the new furniture (usually from China, an ocean voyage of up to 5 weeks), the resources used to produce steel to build the furniture, and the space in the waste stream that the used furniture would otherwise occupy. Used furniture was clearly a winning choice for Bike New York.
Finding a company that could deliver the right furniture for the organization’s needs in a short time was harder than making the choice to make use of pre-owned furniture. Bike New York had a couple of false starts with companies that promised more than they could deliver. Bike New York CEO Kenneth Podziba looked further afield and found EthoSource, a Philadelphia company with a successful history of large projects in New York City.
“Ken was also looking for a company that not only he could work with, but a company that would work with him,” says EthoSource account executive Lisa Frizol. “He was looking for someone who would guarantee him no surprises and back up those commitments with action.”
EthoSource was that company. EthoSource was able to source the products and install them in just one week, and Bike New York was completely satisfied with the outcome.
Frizol attributes the success of the project to excellent communication. “Ken was amazed at how quickly and efficiently his needs were conveyed the team at EthoSource,” she says. “Though he never met the team back in Morgantown, he quickly got the answers and information that he needed to make his decisions.” Sales, design, and project management departments were able to work together smoothly so that the job was finished right and on time.
EthoSource and Bike New York are a great fit – in fact, EthoSource owner John Gallen joined in the TD Bank Five Borough Tour.
