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This year’s More Than Furniture conference took place on 27 August and the CRNS were delighted to be able to return to the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama in Glasgow. Over 100 delegates attended the one-day event, coming from a wide range of organisations including furniture projects, local authorities
homelessness, Waste and Economic Development staff, housing associations and voluntary organisations with an interest in furniture reuse. The conference presented its usual mix of high profile speakers, case studies, discussion and training sessions, and plenty of opportunity for networking.
The furniture reuse sector now provides furniture to over 100,000 people and diverts 14,000 tonnes from landfill every year, so the theme of this year’s conference was Bigger, Better, Bolder. The focus was on how furniture projects could maximise their impact, manage growth and improve their services
Sophy Copland, Chief Executive of Instant Neighbour, chaired the event, gave the opening address and set the scene for the day.
James Dunbar, Chief Executive of New Start Highland, gave a very inspiring presentation on how his organisation has planned for future growth and diversification, offering projects value tips for successful transitions and how to structure their organisation to cope with expansion.
Linsay Chalmers, Development Officer at the CRNS, examined why the sector has been successful to date and focused on future strategy for the furniture reuse sector in Scotland, including quality standards and procurement.
We were delighted to welcome our keynote speaker Eric Lombardi, Executive Director of Eco-cycle in Bolder, Colorado, and Chair of the Grassroots Recycling Network, to Scotland. See the interview with him in this month’s Towards Zero for further information on Eric and the work of Eco-cycle.
Delegates had the opportunity to hear from three CRNS member organisations that defy our view of traditional furniture projects. Instead they are furniture projects, which are part of wider support to people with particular support needs. Speakers included Emma Galloway, Enterprise & Development Manager at Bethany Christian Trust, Pat Clark, Factory Manager at Maxie Richards Foundation and Silv Ingram, Development Manager at Castle Furniture Project
The final speaker of the day, Anna Beswick, Assistant Campaign Manager for The Scottish Waste Awareness Group (SWAG), gave a short presentation on the joint work that SWAG and the CRNS will be undertaking to promote furniture reuse through the More Than Furniture brand, and outlined how these lessons will be rolled out to other reuse organisations.
The twelve round-table workshops throughout the day created a dynamic and decentralised structure, giving delegates the opportunity to discuss and share information about particular activities and services, including providing furniture packs, how to handle difficult to recycle materials, Public Social Partnerships, and marketing their projects.
CRNS would like to thank all the delegates, speakers and workshop leaders for making this conference such an exciting, interesting and productive event. We hope everyone was able to take something positive from it.
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