NORNORM
Basic information
Project Title
Full project title
Category
Project Description
NORNORM’s purpose and vision is to apply a circular model to office interiors. To offer flexible, affordable and inspiring work environments through using, and reusing, resources intelligently in order to promote the well-being of both employees, businesses and the planet.
Project Region
EU Programme or fund
Description of the project
Summary
Imagine what humanity could achieve if millions of workspaces inspired people to do the best work of their lives. Now imagine what could happen if those spaces could evolve, in real time, to meet the aspirations of this work and the needs of the planet.
NORNORM’s vision for the workplace of the future is simple: integrate circularity into its foundation and demonstrate how it can benefit individuals, design, business practices and the environment.
To do this, we have developed a subscription-based furnishing model, enabling businesses to adapt — efficiently, sustainably and cost-effectively — to the needs of tomorrow.
Our fully integrated service covers everything from initial workspace design, installation, continuously adapting layouts, to the repair and replacement of all our “better-than-new” pieces. All this to ensure a workspace continuously maximises impact without compromising on it’s benefits for people, your business or the planet.
This is NORNORM’s mission: to make workspaces better — for the people they serve, the businesses they house and the planet they impact. All so you can focus on what really matters — creating the best work of your life.
Key objectives for sustainability
NORNORM’s purpose and vision is to apply a circular model to office interiors. To offer flexible, affordable and inspiring work environments through using, and reusing, resources intelligently in order to promote the well-being of both employees, businesses and the planet.
We are working to innovate within an industry that is currently taking a massive toll on the environment. Every year tons of office furniture (8.5 million in the US alone) is thrown out and discarded. A fraction of this can be attributed to wear and tear, but much of this waste is simply due to poor planning when moving offices, downsizing or upsizing staff, or simply having office structures that are not flexibly designed for rapidly changing landscapes in business.
To combat this, we have focused in on three areas of impact to innovate within:
- A circular, subscription-based service
NORNORM’s circular business approach offers access to quality furniture and adaptable workspaces at an affordable price. By choosing to subscribe instead of buy, businesses can take an important step towards reducing the carbon footprint of their operations. When there is no longer need for certain pieces of furniture in your office, NORNORM will not retire or scrap them. Instead they will be refurbished and re-used, prolonging their lifespan.
- Re-used & Refurbished Products
We actively work with our product partners to select used items that can be reused and refurbished efficiently and sustainably. Within the subscription service if a piece breaks, is no longer wanted or needs to be switched out, it is integrated back into NORNORM’s supply chain and made better than new once again, prolonging the life of each piece by decades.
- Reverse Logistics & Transportation
CO2 emissions can be reduced from freight transport by reducing average haul lengths, improved vehicle utilisation, reconfiguring production and dis
Key objectives for aesthetics and quality
Within NORNORM we have optimised our service through modular workspace sets and high quality products used to populate them.
First, our design ethos is based on modular sets that are each designed with a primary identity and purpose. We have designed modular sets based on four main typologies: Solo Spaces, Collaboration Spaces, Social Spaces and Facilitation Spaces.
Within these Space typologies, we have curated and designed sets that can populate a floor plan with the ease and flexibility of rearranging lego bricks. This not only allows NORNORM designers to create workspace solutions quickly, it also allows more flexibility within the spaces themselves. We can change designs and solutions based on the current needs of the people who work within them, keeping them consistently relevant and impactful.
A key feature of NORNORM’s product curation is timeless design. This is a prerequisite of a long life of the items and the circularity of the concept. That’s why every piece in the sets is carefully selected to represent the clean looks, good quality and pared down aesthetics that will guarantee it being appreciated by every user, in every office – and for many years to come.
Our products are also chosen based on their quality and functionality. We work with brands such as Gemla, Hay, Herman Miller and Zilenzio to provide sets that diminish noise pollution, offer comfort and flexibility (ie: sit/stand desks and ergonomic chair design), and use recycled and sustainable materials such as fabric made from recycled PET plastic and solid wood materials that are all Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certified.
Key objectives for inclusion
We have started designing workspace solutions with a deep cognisance that the ways in which we work and relate to the spaces we work in is changing deeply. A new generation of workers is forcing us to re-evaluate decade-old practices. Workplaces generally have been monocultures focused on young, fit men between 25 and 40. The archetypal cold corporate office did not take into account the age, gender, race, culture, sexuality or neuro-diversity of the people working there.
Tomorrow’s workforce will be drawn to new workplaces that represent part of their identity and act as an extension of their own selves. Our design ideology based on flexibility, affordability and a principled stance towards a new and circular way of doing business is reflectant of a reality that people should not — and now will not — accept anything less. This means putting people at the centre of design and decision-making is key to delivering the right work environment.
Our key objectives in relation to inclusion are the following:
(1) Run a service that provides consistently flexible design solutions, making sure spaces reflect the needs of those who use them consistently and uncompromisingly.
(2) Provide this service at an affordable price that works out to be roughly 3 euro per employee per month.
(3) Create a diverse portfolio of design spaces so that our solutions do not only speak to a privileged few. We believe that, regardless of industry, a workspace should enable creativity, comfort, and feel tangibly friendly the minute you enter it. This is important for everyone to have the best every day life at work, regardless of what your job may be.
Results in relation to category
In the category of products and lifestyle we wish to contribute NORNORM's work as an example of a fully integrated service that contributes to a sustainable and inclusive every day life at work.
Within the short history of our company, we have re-created workspace solutions for some 25 clients. We have collaborated with businesses such as MRP Development, Techleap, The Next Web, Electrolux and Space/Pop House. On top of this, we are actively in discussion with over 85 other businesses — discussing the many ways in which we can help make their workspaces friendlier, more flexible, and fully circular.
With every client we work with, we aim to diminish the collective waste impact of their business by ensuring that none of their rented furniture ever leaves circulation. We aim to make a positive impact for the environment while also making a significant impact in the everyday lives of people by making the spaces they work in adaptive to their needs, friendly in atmosphere, and inclusive to the different ways in which people do their best work.
How Citizens benefit
The average person will spend one third of their life "at work". Recent events with COVID-19 have thrust the ways in which we work into public dialogue more than ever before, but NORNORM's fascination stems primarily from something we have known for years: the places we work in truly matter.
We are in the business of better spaces. Our market is everyone who spends time at a desk, everyone who works at home or in an office, everyone who needs a chair to sit on or a table to eat at. Everyone who needs to store their stuff in an organised way.
We know how much great design matters. It’s the difference between a quality everyday life and an uneasy one. Not only do we know great design is important, but we have combined the time and expertise of our team to formulate a service that make great design accessible.
We work to find the intangible things that make a space feel productive and comfortable, and re-invent them to be plug and play solutions. This goes for any element of your space, whether it be a full office re-design or simply a meeting room upgrade.
In short, we bring better workspaces to the many people.
Innovative character
At NORNORM we are actively rethinking how we create new business models. The fact that the planet is running out of resources means that the linear, take-make-waste economy will have to make way for a circular approach in all aspects of life, including the office. We’re passionate about finding new business opportunities, and although the change to a circular economy poses many challenges, it also creates massive potential for meaningful impact.
Meanwhile, we’re throwing away more furniture than ever. By most estimates, less than 10% of office furniture is used beyond the first office it inhabits. That’s why giving furniture a second shot at life is a great way to mitigate environmental harm.
In recent years, we’ve also started to redefine the concept of the office, a trend enhanced by the pandemic. We’ve been forced to think creatively about how and where we work. Why invest in expensive furniture when you don’t know what the future will bring?
NORNORM innovates within this field not simply by trying to find sustainable alternatives to the ways in which we are running an industry, our ambition is to fundamentally redefine the business, supply chain and consumption models we use within it.
We have also started explorations into sustainable and tech enabled forms of packaging that reduce un-utilised space and enable hyper efficient transportation.
