About
Smart Furnishing is a division within Packimpex AG, headquartered in Thörishaus, Switzerland with offices in Belgium, Germany, Italy, Ireland, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom.
We provide rental and new furniture sales, offer turn-key solutions, and facilitate related services from our broad network of suppliers for the real estate and relocation industries across Europe. We believe in always being there to help, offering fast, cost-efficient, and innovative solutions – saving customers time, effort, and money.
The Team
Daniela Tanner
Sarah Sellam
Timo Bärtschi
André Hirschi
Sabrina Florea
Mireille Martinon
Stefan Franke
Why Work with Us?
Packimpex began as a physical relocation company in 1977. Today, the company offers every kind of relocation support and spans across 7 countries and counting. We credit this success to our simple philosophy; customer satisfaction and sustainability is at the core of all our activities. We believe in always doing that little bit extra to make us stand out from the competition.
Since our services include all aspects of relocation, we can in addition to furnishing and maintaining your property, we can also channel our established corporate customers to your property, or rent the apartment or property directly from you, taking care of all practicalities. No other supplier on the market can offer this unique combination of services.
Values
Empowerment
We empower our employees through training and a platform for growth, enabling them to explore their full potential and entrepreneurial abilities. We trust their judgement and skills to make decisions that enhance customer experience and drive our business forward.
Sustainability
As the first relocation company to become CO2 neutral in 2011, we’re proud to be the drivers of change in our industry. We remain committed to reduce our impact through continuous innovation and welcome new ideas for a greener future.
Innovation
Our customer obsession, passion for quality and agile mindset powers our drive for innovation. We embrace digital transformation and love to experiment with smart tech that gets us closer to our goal: improving customer experience at every touchpoint.
Ambition
We aim to become the relocation partner of choice in Europe and the best at what we do, by consistently improving and creating relevant, future-proof relocation experiences.
Integrity
We adhere to strict professional ethics and are accountable for our actions. Compliance with standards on quality management, diversity, equity & inclusion, anti-bribery regulations, code of conduct and data privacy policies, are an integral part of everything we do.
Passion
We are people-centric and value our fun, positive, and collaborative work environment that fosters a strong team culture. Our success is built on emotional competence, and we know that happy employees create happy customers.
Legacy
We’re proud of our progressive, innovative mindset and we always think about tomorrow. But we never forget where we’re coming from. Packimpex was founded almost 50 years ago and has been a family-owned company for decades. Our solid local roots inspire us to create a lasting impact that transcends short-term gains.
CO2 neutral since 2011 and counting
At Packimpex we are placing sustainability at the core of our values. In 2004 we achieved our first ISO 14001 certification, a family of certifications attesting environmental performance, and we have retained it ever since. We were also the first in our industry to become CO2 neutral already in 2011, and we are consistently taking steps towards the reduction in our carbon footprint.
Since then, we’ve supported several international carbon offsetting projects. In Switzerland, we’ve upgraded our fleet of vehicles to include more hybrid models, we made an e-bike available for our team in Vevey, and actively participate in Switzerland’s Bike to Work campaign.
These are just the “big” sustainability projects that take place in the Packimpex offices. We are also strong believers in small gestures with big impact.
Achieving means that we had to analyse every small activity and figure out if it was eco-friendly or not. And if anything can be improved to make it eco-friendly.
Here are some of the small steps with big impact we took early on:
- Every email we didn’t print helped us take extra steps towards carbon neutrality. In fact, we seldom use the printers in our offices and only when it’s absolutely necessary.
- We designed our offices in a way that maximises natural light.
- Everyone has to participate in this effort, irrespective of the department they work in.
- Turning off all the electronics and the heat during the night.
- We invest in energy-efficient electronics and sustainable office materials whenever possible.
- We encourage our employees to go green beyond the office and implement as many eco-friendly initiatives in their homes as well.
Read on to find out how we have integrated all of the above into a coherent sustainability strategy.
How we did it: our tried and tested strategies for sustainability
Each and every year, our Accounting department pores over the numbers that make our CO2 stats:
- How much petrol did we use?
- How much water did we consume across all our offices?
- How about energy?
Based on these stats, we know what actions need to be taken for the upcoming year to adjust and further reduce our carbon footprint.
Before the pandemic, in 2019, we had achieved an overall reduction of CO2 emissions by 13% vs. 2018. Until 2019, Packimpex had also reduced the consumption of water and energy per capita in its offices by an average of 5% annually. Despite the radical changes brought about by the pandemic, we believe these six tried and tested strategies are a great start:
1. Rigorous management of resources
As a relocation company who’s recently expanded in seven European countries, to say that we need to travel is an understatement. Staying in touch with colleagues across Europe, driving our clients to 8 property viewings in a day, checking potential homes before the viewings ourselves – all these trips can add up to high CO2 emissions. Luckily, our yearly audit keeps us in check. Thanks to this audit, we’ve taken the following steps:
We’ve invested in a green fleet of hybrid cars and we plan to add more green vehicles.
The Vevey office acquired an e-bike and we’re happy our colleagues put it to good use on a regular basis.
We’ve reduced business travels by 62% since 2018. However, when travelling and commuting can’t be avoided, we offset our carbon footprint by other means. Investing in a stack of digital solutions, for instance, has helped us minimise travelling even more.
2. Re-use or recycle
That’s the golden rule of going green, as we all know it. At Packimpex we have recycling collection points in all offices for paper, PET, cans and coffee capsules. We are also making constant efforts to become paperless and reduce printing.
Our Corporate Housing department offers furnished apartments for our corporate clients, mostly for short periods of time. We never discard the furniture in these apartments after use. Instead, we either donate it, sell it or rent it further.
We strongly believe that steps like this are the cornerstone of sustainability in our industry. By coming up with efficient ways to use the resources that are specific to our industry, we can maintain our carbon-neutral standing. We hold ourselves accountable for everything we use (for our own business and for our client’s). And this is an important step in challenging ourselves to do even better when it comes to sustainability.
3. Employee engagement
You cannot achieve sustainability without management buy-in. But it would be wrong to assume that it’s only the managers who can come up with green initiatives. Our sustainability efforts are fueled by each member of our team.
We rely on every single one of our team mates to support our green efforts. But we also encourage them to step forward with any fresh ideas.
For example, in Switzerland, it was our colleagues who suggested the appointment of local Green Ambassadors to handle all environmental issues and keep our green commitment on track. It was also our colleagues in Vevey who requested an e-bike instead of a car to use for various office errands.
4. Global impact through local actions
Carbon offsetting is a quick and reliable way to improve a company’s CO2 stats. But getting too attached to numbers can easily cause you to miss the forest for the trees.
We use numbers as a means to track our progress and keep ourselves accountable. However, what we are most proud of is the way our carbon offsetting initiatives have helped local communities all over the world.
We’ve been investing in carbon offsetting projects since 2013, be it to improve energy efficiency in South Africa (2013), to help community members in Bamako, Mali switch to efficient stoves (2014), to support wind energy in Turkey (2015-2016) or more recently, to support renewable energy projects in Asia.
Starting with 2017, we’ve been supporting two wind parks in Rajasthan, India. The wind parks, located in the arid districts of Pratapgarh and Jaisalmer, not only produce clean energy, but also improve the life of the local communities. For instance, to help the locals overcome water scarcity, the project supports farmers and community members in implementing conservation schemes such as rainwater harvesting, dam check-ups and new irrigation techniques.
Helping local communities all over the world is an important part of achieving sustainability in the relocation industry. We are all connected, no matter where we live. Creating a better home for everyone means local actions with a global view.
5. Client participation
We have even involved our clients in our local initiatives with global impact. We now offer CO2 compensation for each delivery. Our clients can choose to pay a small amount along with their fee for carbon offsetting projects.
6. Have fun with it
Going green as a company does not have to be only about cost and resource-cutting. From celebrating every small victory, like a green certificate for our PET recycling or taking part in Bike to work challenges, we take every chance to be green AND have fun.