Rent "Moral furniture" to do a favor to the planet
A sofa for two people with Chaise Longue of the Berlin company Furniture designer Noah Living, 46 euros.A quality table and premium design to eat in the living room from the black jungle (German southwest), 11 euros.Cushions of the Madrid brand ethnic carpets specialized in tissues of the Andean highlands, 2 euros.
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The real price of those high -end products is not that.It is enough to know that the couch with Chaise Longue actually costs almost 3,300 euros.However, for 46 euros per month, the Muniquesa Frently start-up puts it available to anyone who wants to pay that rent.
Frently's business is precisely to rent high quality products and with the "sustainable" seal with the objective, they say, to combat that usual dynamic that consists of buying cheap furniture and then discarding them shortly.Therefore, the team of six people who composes this small company call themselves "furniture activists."
“The furniture industry in one of the world's largest, but unfortunately is also one of the most polluting.In Europe, 10.5 million tons of furniture per year end in the garbage.This is a big problem of pollution of the environment and also an astronomical use of resources, ”they point out in Frently to justify why the Baumann brothers threw themselves into the adventure of creating a furniture start-up.
Raphael Baumann, CEO of the firm, and its three brothers are behind the company.They are the hard core of this furniture rental business.
“Now, the materials used in the furniture that is usually purchased are not of great quality.In the sector, in general, it has been assumed that, using this type of cheap materials, furniture has to be changed every little time.They are cheap furniture, but they don't last long, ”he tells Eldiario.es Raphael Baumann."Thus thinking about the furniture business is a fatal environment for the environment," he adds.
Hence, Frently's founding idea is to provide its customers access to quality products to last.The intention to change the way in which furniture is consumed to benefit the environment is what has made the Berlin Der Tagsspiegel say that Frently's furniture is "moral furniture."
It helps to see the activity of the Baumann brothers and their team that the company is donating 1% of its income to support environmental causes.As a business, Frently is part of the NGO "1% for the Planet", an initiative created precisely to help companies and individuals channel their desire to contribute organizations dedicated to environmental struggles.
Founded in 2002 in the United States, this NGO has obtained in two decades the financing of environmental groups with 250 million dollars (220.7 million euros).
Frently's furniture, which is only implanted in Munich and Berlin, also try to be durable because, according to the selection made by the Baumann and company, the furniture styles they put in rent are rather timeless.They do not seem furniture that can be victims of the passage of any fashion.
Furniture are rented that "last a long time"
In addition, if Frenlty's furniture lasts, it is because “we know how to take care of the furniture, we know how to repair them, because we have to know that when we talk about good furniture, they can be repaired, in general, very good;Damage can be corrected and, thus, after a review and repair they can be rented again as if they were new, ”says Baumann.
Among his brothers and his team there are specialists in carpentry and furniture manufacture.To avoid a great environmental impact, its products are regional.As far away, furniture comes from companies from other countries in Europe.Other regions of the raised, with worse working conditions for workers, are cheaper when buying furniture.Among those European firms are large international names and small local companies.
“What matters to us is that they are furniture that can be maintained in use for a long time, in addition to the fact that during the manufacture of furniture there are not many emissions, because it is in the process manufacture of furniture where there are more carbon dioxide emissions”, According to Baumann.
Frently CEO refers to one of the winter effect gases with greater responsibility in global warming.According to the accounts that make in Frently, in 2020, the first year of activity of this German start-up, through your company there was a saving of 26,582 kilograms of carbon dioxide.
The rental of Frently's sustainable furniture, a priori, may interest that young and urban consumer who, for work or studies, for example, does not yet have his own furniture for the apartment in which he lives.Daniel, another of the Bollmann, explained that Frenlty's offer is aimed at “young people who are taking their first steps in the work world and who do not want to have the typical Ikea furniture, but that it also does not have a budget to buysustainable furniture ”.
Furnish a shared floor room: 35 euros per month
Thus, for example, furnishing a room with a floor shared with Frently's furniture, according to the calculations presented by the company itself, including a bed, a mattress, a lamp, a desk and a chair, leaves for 35 euros a month.Paying those Frently furniture to Tocateja would come out for 2,371 euros.
Baumann points out that your company also addresses those who want to prove what this type of furniture is to have.“There are people who want to try and think if they like to have this type of furniture.We also offer the possibility of buying the furniture after the rental contract, ”says Baumann.
Although for now your company only rent furniture in Berlin and Munich, Baumann does not hide desire to expand.His business model is already exploited well in the United States.Frently goes through being a pioneer in Europe in the rental of sustainable furniture.It remains to see if they will succeed.The company is currently looking for investors.
But there is something, in principle difficult, that the Bollmann have already achieved: launch a company in the middle of a pandemic that has stopped many sectors of the world economy.“Our industry, that of furniture, has not suffered great impacts on pandemic.On the contrary, many people have become interested in the furniture of their houses so that they are pretty inside, ”concludes Baumann.
