Classroom and learning space design can impact outcomes. “Researchers suggest that 10 to 15 percent of variance in academic outcomes is influenced by the environment,” said Leslie Stebbins in EdSpaces.
However, furnishing an academic space often involves more than selecting desks and chairs. A classroom refresh, student services renovation, faculty office project, or new administrative suite may also require technology accessories, office products, breakroom supplies, print materials, and other supporting items.
For colleges, universities, and K-12 systems, that can mean coordinating multiple suppliers and contracts for a single project. The broader Staples offering available through the E&I contract can help simplify that process. Business Interiors by Staples supports furniture and interior needs, while Staples Advantage office supplies and other product categories can help institutions source many of the items needed to complete and support those spaces.
Learning Space Procurement Is More Complex Than It Looks
Academic space projects often cross several purchasing categories and organizational responsibilities.
Facilities may lead the physical renovation. Procurement may manage sourcing and contracts. IT may need to coordinate technology. Individual departments may determine functional requirements, while finance tracks budgets and approvals.
The products can be just as varied. A project may require seating, workstations, storage, whiteboards, computer accessories, office supplies, cleaning products, breakroom items, and signage.
Managing each requirement through a separate supplier can increase administrative complexity. Procurement teams may have to coordinate multiple contracts, account structures, delivery schedules, invoices, and service contacts. Where appropriate, consolidating related purchases through a broader contract can make these projects easier to manage.
What Business Interiors by Staples Adds
Business Interiors by Staples has more than 735,000 products along with delivery and installation options. For academic institutions, that can apply to far more than traditional administrative offices. Furniture and interior products may be needed for classrooms, libraries, faculty offices, conference rooms, student lounges, collaborative learning spaces, advising centers, and other campus environments.
The ability to source furniture through the same broader supplier relationship used for other campus products can reduce the need to create an entirely separate purchasing path for every project. It can also support greater consistency across locations. Institutions may choose to standardize certain furniture types, finishes, or product families where that makes operational sense while still allowing individual departments to select products suited to their specific needs.
More Than Furniture: Staples Advantage Office Supplies and Related Categories
Through the E&I Staples cooperative contract, academic institutions can access Business Interiors by Staples as well as Staples Advantage office supplies.
The agreement includes Staples’ full product offering, covering office supplies, technology products, furniture, jan/san products, breakroom supplies, promotional products, and custom print services. That can be particularly useful during a move, renovation, or new-space opening. Instead of completing the furniture installation and then creating separate purchasing processes for basic office and operational products, procurement teams can source many related categories through the same contract.
In total, Staples offers access to more than one million products through its business platform, giving academic departments flexibility while still leveraging the negotiated savings under the E&I contract with Staples.
Supporting Space Refreshes and Campus Projects
A student services office renovation might involve new desks, seating, storage, technology accessories, print materials, and breakroom products. A classroom update could require furniture along with whiteboards, cables, presentation accessories, and other instructional support items. Faculty office refreshes, administrative relocations, library updates, and collaborative study areas can create similar cross-category requirements.
When furniture and supporting products can be sourced through the same contract, procurement teams may be able to reduce coordination among multiple suppliers and simplify purchasing during the project, saving time, money, and additional resources.
Sustainability Considerations for Furnishing and Supplies
Space projects can also create opportunities to support institutional sustainability goals. Through the Staples relationship, institutions can access approximately 20,000 environmentally preferable products along with sustainability reporting. That allows procurement teams to consider sustainability across both major purchases and the everyday products used to operate academic spaces after a project is complete.
See also: The Importance of Business Ethics
Contract Value Beyond Product Selection
The Staples agreement with E&I Cooperative Services was competitively solicited and includes exclusive financial incentives and rebate opportunities. Because E&I focuses exclusively on the education sector, it is able to leverage the demand of more than 6,500 academic institutions to deliver significant volume discounts while also accelerating procurement cycles.
Within each cooperative agreement, E&I applies its Economic Benefit Model™, which measures the full impact of contracts, including cost reduction, cost avoidance, incentives, and revenue. For the Staples contract, E&I estimates the total economic benefit in the range of 13.2% to 15.8%
Explore the E&I Staples cooperative contract today.
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