As a certified B Corporation, Living Edge is part of a global movement using business as a force for good. The company’s sustainability journey has been 15 years in the making, led by the directors from the very beginning and culminating in a company-wide effort to embed responsible practices at every level.
Achieving B Corp certification was both a challenge and an opportunity—an opportunity to measure progress, identify areas for growth, and set a benchmark for the future. In this interview, we speak with Guy Walsh, Living Edge Sustainability Strategist, about the company’s path to certification, the driving forces behind its commitment to sustainability, and what this milestone means for the future of Living Edge and the broader furniture industry.
What motivated Living Edge to pursue B Corp certification, and what were the biggest challenges in the journey?
I think we saw the challenge of achieving B Corp certification as a way to measure our business against the high bar set by the B Corp movement, and as a way to discover where we are doing well, and more importantly where we can improve, in terms of environmental and social responsibility. The biggest challenge was developing the metrics we needed to back up our claims – for example, we had to find a way to confidently estimate the amount of our revenue that was generated from recycled materials in the reporting year.
Since achieving B Corp certification, what key improvements or changes has Living Edge implemented to further its sustainability goals?
At a practical level, I think our biggest success has been increasing recycling rates at our Sydney distribution centre. We partnered with a new recycling contractor to create new segregated collection streams for soft plastics, polystyrene, and timber – in particular used pallets. Combined with the existing cardboard and commingle recycling streams, this has helped us to half the number of general waste collections we need at the DC each year. From a long-term perspective, I think our circularity initiatives have continued to develop and advance, and we have some exciting projects in the pipeline that I hope will act as case studies for what’s possible when we embrace circular strategies.
How has becoming a B Corp influenced Living Edge’s relationships with suppliers, manufacturers, and clients?
Becoming a B Corp has definitely helped to signal our ambition and our expectations around responsible practice to our supply chain. What’s really encouraging is that one of brand partners here in Australia, Zetr, have started their own B Corp certification journey. From a client perspective, I think that B Corp certification acts as a simple way to give our customers the confidence that Living Edge is a business that is striving to do things the right way.
Can you share any measurable impacts or successes that have resulted from the company’s sustainability initiatives post-certification?
One of our biggest successes has been helping the team at Australia Post to audit, refurbish, and reuse 2,200 Herman Miller task chairs, 124 meeting tables, and over 300 pieces of loose furniture at their new support office in Melbourne’s CBD. It’s our biggest ReLive project to date, and I applaud AusPost’s commitment to pursuing and executing reuse strategies – the task chair refurbishment program alone diverted nearly 50 tonnes of furniture from landfill.
