Future-Proof Furniture Solutions
As the only 100% dedicated school furniture specialist on the AoG (All of Government) Fitouts and Commodity list, class* is your best option.
For over three decades now, class* has cost-effectively fitted-out schools and supplied school furniture right throughout NZ. In addition to this, we’re now able to offer special class* AoG discount rates to all schools signed up to the AoG Workplace & Classroom Furniture Contract.
We focus on being the easiest-to-deal-with provider of educational furniture: you can shop 24/7 online, create and save quotes and our website is fully-priced and freight-inclusive. We enjoy really positive, ongoing relationships with our customers, and after-sales service is a key class* focus; read more about how schools enjoy working with us at here
We’re also always looking for more effective ways to simplify your furniture selection process. Like this great tool, our Buddy Budgeter app. It has furniture layouts to inspire you, lets you accurately plan and budget for new classroom and staffroom spaces, as well as create, save, and share furniture quotes. Believe us; this is a game-changer and a real time-saver for busy school staff.
class* is also a great choice to ensure your school is doing its bit for the environment furniture-wise. For us to become a preferred AoG supplier, we had to comply with, and map out, our successful efforts relating to ‘Broader Outcomes.’
These broader outcomes show, among other things, that class* is aiming to do what’s best for the planet by minimising waste, recycling and reducing our carbon footprint. Our ‘Reduce, Reuse, Recycle Future-Proof‘ policy, committed to lowering environmental impact, actively looks for ways to improve this, with measurable targets, including waste and emissions reduction. We’re currently working with all our suppliers towards 100% recyclable packaging and, ultimately, net zero carbon status in their manufacturing.
Other AoG contenders couldn’t meet these criteria, so when you shop with class* you know your school benefits way beyond just price!
If you’d like to know more about the AoG scheme and how it could work for your school, just email us and we’ll get back to you to answer any questions.
Let’s be clever Kiwis together!
We’re always exploring new ways to improve educational environments. Be it through new products or adaptations and changes to existing ones, we’re always looking for better ways to do things. As it’s not just about buying furniture; it’s about creating a better space for kids to learn and teachers to teach in. To achieve this for you, we use our 25+ years’ experience in designing and sourcing future-proof classroom and admin furniture that works.
Wherever possible, all our furniture is designed, constructed and assembled in New Zealand. Plus almost everything we sell uses sustainable recyclable materials – it’s not just the learning environment we care about!
When you start a conversation with us, you’ll find that we ask questions long before we talk products. What outcome are you after, what type of environment are you aiming to achieve, how involved is the local community in this project, what’s your time scale, things like that.
It’s only once we have that information that we’ll start to recommend the products to deliver the best Future-Proof furniture solution for your school.
Reduce, Reuse, Recycle
The class* ’One Planet Policy’, implemented in 2016, means we work closely with all our suppliers to ensure that every product uses sustainable woods, recyclable metal and plastics, as well as eco-friendly paints and finishes.
Any school, when buying furniture, can ask us to register their purchase with our Future-Proof Environmental Programme. When the item is at the end of its lifecycle and outside of its warranty period, we will collect any of those used items in CKD (disassembled) form, free of charge, and either:
• Donate it to recognised charity to extend its lifecycle or;
• If the item is beyond salvage, have it dismantled, separated by material and whenever possible sent to approved recyclers.
Furthermore;
To reduce environmental impact, we work with a recycler who goes the extra mile by removing and recycling items and components that can be recycled. Currently, they divert 40% of what is received to recycling. All non-recyclable waste – old desktops etc. – are fed through an industrial shredder, helping it to breakdown within 7 to 10 years, rather than the typical 25 years for whole panels etc.
The packaging we use is predominantly cardboard, but class* is currently working on revised packaging with its supply factories, with the aim of making 100% of packaging recyclable. Our installers ensure that the cardboard packaging gets recycled too.
3 key New Zealand factories we use have high-level environmental polices of their own: their foam and fibre off-cuts are recycled, and they can chip any solid timber and MDF offcuts into compostable mulch.
Helping the planet in more ways than one
All class* products use sustainable woods, recyclable metal & plastics and eco-friendly paints and finishes.
We track our own footprint informally and through our management of our business. As part of that, we have undertaken various internal practices to reduce our carbon footprint, including:
Prior to 2014, our Gisborne staff regularly travelled (via air travel to main centres) to visit schools right throughout NZ. Since then, class* has employed out-of-town reps, which has reduced our air travel and emissions by 75%. In addition to this, all our out-of-town reps work from home-based offices which eliminates hours of vehicle emissions caused by to-work travel on congested motorways.
class* has also boosted its use of online consultations with clients, which have increased by 300% since Jan 2020, further reducing emissions by staff travelling to as many on-site visits at schools.
In 2017, as part of our Future-Proof strategy, class* shifted from a multitude of various buildings across multiple storage sites, into a purpose-built facility. This new facility provides eco-friendly efficiencies such as; electric forklifts, all low-energy LED lighting, well insulated offices with double-glazing and 5-star, energy-efficient, Daikin reverse cycle heating and cooling units.
Saving trees is important too. All of our catalogues, brochures, how-to booklets and helpful guides are available on our website – just pop online, download the items you want and selectively print out the pages you need.
If you do want printed copies, we’ll gladly supply them. Just email or call our Head Office and we’ll get them away to you in the next post.
