”Sustainability is about many aspects. When it comes to Healsafe Interiör’s safety products and the contribution these imply for a safe and healing environment, it can probably be said that social sustainability is most important, i.e. getting patients and clients to stay well in their care environment and later be able to return to a more normal life. Although the effect of social sustainability can be described, it is difficult to quantify, while another aspect of sustainability – the economic one – is relatively easier to calculate.”
This is our 7th concept – FINACIAL SUSTAINABILITY – in our series of a total of 10 concepts that we highlight during our 10th anniversary.
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FINANCIAL SUSTAINABILITY
Sustainability is about many aspects. When it comes to Healsafe Interiör’s safety products and the contribution these imply for a safe and healing environment, it can probably be said that social sustainability is most important, i.e. getting patients and clients to stay well in their care environment and later be able to return to a more normal life. Although the effect of social sustainability can be described, it is difficult to quantify, while another aspect of sustainability – the economic one – is relatively easier to calculate.
An example: There are many chairs to choose from, but we take a Scandinavian standard peg chair “Lilla Åland” as an example. It is used in challenging environments in e.g. dining rooms or living rooms. In public environments with normal requirements, a standard chair can have a relatively long life, but in challenging environments, it unfortunately happens all too often that chairs are deliberately or unknowingly destroyed. The list price for Lilla Åland is about SEK 3 000 and with an assumed sales discount of 40%, the purchasing price is SEK 1 800. In this example, we assume that the lifespan is 1.5 years, which gives an average annual cost of SEK 1 200.
Healsafe Interior’s chair RYNO in rotationally moulded polyethylene has a price to the customer of approx. SEK 7 500 and a lifespan of 20 years according to the manufacturer. In this example, we reduce the lifespan to 10 years due to expected surface wear, which means that the chair would therefore be considered worn out – aesthetically, not functionally. The annual cost for RYNO will then be SEK 750, compared to SEK 1 200 for Lilla Åland.
In addition to the financial advantage, you avoid the risks of legs or back sticks from a smashed peg chair being used as a sharp and dangerous weapon. With a robust and durable chair solution, there will also be no “interruption” in the daily business while waiting for a new delivery.
This example of a chair can of course also be applied to other types of standard furniture where the frame material is often a chipboard which is significantly less durable than the reinforced plywood used in our safety furniture.
Another example of economically sustainable safety furniture is beds with a design and choice of materials that provide a robust and hygienic solution – easily wipeable and without crevices or materials that can be a breeding ground for vermin. A standard bed where you do not succeed in removing the vermin risks being discarded.
The Cumulus Plus table is another example. The table top is very robust with a hard-wearing surface, but can still be worn and scratched over a long period of time. Instead of replacing the entire table, only the table top can be replaced. The table top is easily unscrewed and the base of the table is retained.
Financial sustainability is also about making the right choice from the start. If a ward have e.g. bought a curtain rail system that doesn’t offer the best possible safety, maybe they choose to keep this for a few more years – “…we’ve already taken the cost anyway, we can’t take it twice.”
J-trac curtain rail systems may in some cases be more expensive per meter or per window, but Healsafe Interiör’s system will undoubtedly be cheaper per year because it lasts for many, many years. And additionally also offers the best safety of available curtain rail systems.
A more difficult comparison is cutlery, where regular metal cutlery will always have a longer lifespan than Healsafe Interiör’s safety cutlery (and thus be cheaper), but here, of course, you have to take into consideration the safety requirements. On the other hand, if you compare safety cutlery with disposable cutlery, the safety cutlery always wins in terms of both durability, economy and safety.
When it comes to financial sustainability, you should always think about what is best in the long term for the facilities where you work – safety, economy, normality etc.
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