"From old postal parcels from the sorting centre we made 85 workplaces for the PostNL office.
A psychologist and a mover who together start a company in circular office design. It is less strange than it seems. Martijn Vinke and Marc van der Heijden met during a lean management training and found each other on two levels: encouraging people to get the best out of themselves and doing something about the climate problem. It was with this in mind that they set up Triboo in 2017.
"After four months, it didn't run like clockwork," says Martijn. "We wanted to help companies to make their office furnishings more sustainable. We wanted to give them the opportunity to make different, circular choices. But there was no circular furniture at all." An innovative designer, who used a 3D printer to make beautiful products from old refrigerators, gave them an idea. "If that furniture doesn't exist, we should make it ourselves. Sensational products made from waste, so not sustainably made or certified. But furniture that is produced in a radically different way with innovative technology".
Triboo started with the circular production of plastic products, but now makes products from all kinds of waste streams. "We prefer to use waste from the company that hires us. That may be paper or plastic, but also drinks cartons or old CDs. And if a customer no longer wants to use his furniture, we take it back and pay out the raw material value. The old furniture then serves as raw material for new products. In this way, we take responsibility ourselves for closing the cycle instead of leaving it to the waste industry.
Large project furnishing companies did not take Triboo seriously at first. They did not believe circular office design could be successful. At Post NL, Triboo proved for the first time that it could. "From old postal packages from the sorting centre we made 85 workplaces for the office. We showed then that we can actually make something new out of waste."
Meanwhile Triboo has many large and small Dutch customers and competitors even buy products from them. There are many office furnishing companies that deliver sustainable products, but only Triboo offers truly circular office furnishings. Can everything be circular? "No", Martijn agrees, "not according to our strict norm. We think that there is no such thing as 100% circular office chairs. But of course the customer doesn't just want a desk from us. That's why we supply an office chair that we guarantee will be the most sustainable. In that case, we settle for 'next best'."
More and more companies are consciously opting for circularity and investing in it. "Our products contain a chip. You can scan it and then read where and from what it was made. That is especially nice for furniture made from the company's own waste streams. Employees then immediately see how much waste has been upcycled and how much CO2 has been saved. Companies find this important and want to distinguish themselves with it. And a chair, for example, has much more value for the organisation than just a piece of furniture to sit on.
Corona has done Triboo no harm. "Of course we were shocked when all the offices had to close. But fortunately many employers decided to give their employees a circular home workplace." Sweco is one of those companies. But it didn't want to buy the home workstations, but rather purchase them as a 'product as a service'. This means that Triboo retains ownership of the furniture and Sweco uses it. This solution fits Triboo well, but requires a substantial pre-investment. Triboo therefore asked house bank ABN AMRO for help. "ABN AMRO is the best example for us of a company that takes sustainability and circularity seriously. With the construction of Circl, the bank made a statement in the Dutch business world. So it was only logical to ask ABN AMRO to finance our deal.
The change to sustainability and circularity is not going fast enough for Martijn, which is why he and his partner Marc are also working in other areas. "The climate is changing, the waste problem is growing, biodiversity is declining. The world is a system in balance. At a certain point, you reach a point of no return. Take, for example, the decline in the number of bees. They are finding less and less food due to increasing construction and are therefore declining in numbers. But they are indispensable when it comes to food production. With Bee in Balance, we give the bee a helping hand. Together with companies, we are transforming their premises into feeding and living areas for a variety of bees."
Although the company has only been in existence for five years, it already has a sister company in Denmark. From a European network of sustainable and circular entrepreneurs, Triboo was approached by two Danish entrepreneurs. They wanted to introduce Triboo's ideas and approach to Scandinavia. The government stimulates sustainability and circularity, the market is ripe for it but there is no supply of circular products. "They are still buying our products from the Netherlands. But the intention is that these products will eventually be produced locally in Scandinavia from the waste that is available there. Expansion abroad is good, but only if circular production hubs are created there too and not just imports of products made in the Netherlands. Then you are still helping to reduce CO2 emissions. Vinke is not so keen on globalisation. "It is a waste to move labour, innovation and production abroad. It is precisely in the Netherlands that there is so much need for meaningful work. We are happy to contribute to employment and want to remain an innovative company. That is only possible if the knowledge and production take place here."
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