IWG fitouts go green with Nornorm partnership

With sustainability and hybrid work high on the agenda, the world’s largest flex office provider has teamed up with a Nordic startup to fit out its spaces with reusable furniture.

Nornorm designs workplace furniture and rents it on a subscription basis. Founded on the idea of maintaining, refurbishing and reusing furniture, the startup allows customers to change their fitouts or scale them up and down as needed.

IWG – which owns more than a dozen operators, including Regus – will use the company to redesign its offices, starting with its high-end Signature brand and Spaces, which runs more than 400 workspaces around the world.

In total, IWG operates more than 3,300 locations.

The first office to use Nornorm’s furniture will be Signature Central Park in Utrecht, Netherlands, which will open later this year. Other cities with Signature sites include London, Tokyo, Paris and New York.

Nornorm said it will create “a unique selection of functional, well-designed and high-quality furniture sets” that match the brand.

Annelou de Groot, regional director of partnership growth at IWG, said: “In the new hybrid working world, the office will play a key role in allowing employees to come together for collaboration and collective creativity.

“This means that the design of offices should be inspirational and encourage productivity with inviting interiors and spaces, supporting sustainability standards at the same time.”

She added the partnership “perfectly fits” with the ambition to add flexibility and circularity to offices.

Jonas Kjellberg, founder and chairman of the board at Nornorm, said: “We see a growing demand from our clients to secure the workplace for the future.

“The last two years of pandemics have had a lasting impact on the future of workspaces, and it is becoming increasingly important to adapt and offer flexible office solutions with high service. Hybrid work is here to stay. We are excited to start this journey with IWG, with an ambition to change the game.”