Provision of office furniture for Flexible Workspace at United Nations Office at Nairobi (UNON)

The United Nations headquarters in New York, and offices around the globe are moving towards making their offices climate-neutral and environmentally sustainable, and to see the renovated headquarters, and other complexes eventually become globally acclaimed models of efficient use of energy and resources. Beyond this, the initiative also incorporates flexible workplace, a new way of working, that enables staff to have greater choices in deciding how and where they want to work.

In Nairobi, UNON, is moving towards these changes offering flexible workplace practices. This will allow flexibility for the user to select the space they wish to use, when they want to use it, offer a greater choice of where they would like to work, and to connect to the network wherever they need to. UNON is currently in the process of developing flexible workplace strategies, including but not limited to, a pilot program environment for testing flexible workplace, sample flexible workplace office zone, and thereafter further proposals to roll-out flexible workplace utilization within the renovated offices of the Secretariat buildings at the complex.

The UNON complex comprises approximately 142 acres, 40 buildings of mixed office and commercial space and hosts approximately 50 UN agencies, funds and programs. The compound currently accommodates a population of approximately 3,500 staff in over 67,000 square meters of office, conference and common built space.

Project objectives are:

1. To improve space usage efficiency by maximizing the use of available office, meeting spaces and minimizing sizes of building support spaces. This will be achieved via optimization of the use of the available interior spaces and meeting facilities to provide more flexible and functional spaces.
2. To upgrade the existing outdated furniture systems and move towards a more aesthetic environment where a well-being work place will be enhanced reflecting the UNON community’s needs and brand identity.
3. To move towards more modern and effective workspaces throughout the complex promoting collaboration, productivity, and focused concentration.
4. To provide staff with a choice of flexible workspaces which offer new technologies for staying connected and more efficient.
5. To work in a variety of open and closed spaces with more natural light, enjoying better team support as well as getting to know more staff.
6. To provide pop-up outdoor work zones that help generate creativity and a new well-being work environment, as well as allow staff to move from indoor to unique outdoor work spaces & informal meeting zones within UNON’s existing green spaces in the complex.
7. To keep disruption of the work of the United Nations during the incorporation of flexible workplace initiatives to a minimum and to ensure business and operational continuity throughout all project implementation.

To facilitate this process, we would like to solicit the following information from your company;