In Honor of Earth Day: Giving Office Furniture New Life and Reducing Our Carbon Footprint

The pandemic drastically changed the way we work, and we are still feeling the effect three years later. While some companies who were able to shift to remote work have ordered a return to in-person work, studies show that hybrid and remote work is here to stay. Although working from home has its downsides, people have integrated the work-life balance and embraced this approach.

Companies are now deciding whether to downsize space, or even whether an office is necessary or not. There is no doubt that the reduction in office space and shift to remote work has reduced carbon emissions, but there is a concern about what to do with all the furniture that is no longer needed. According to the EPA, up to 8.5 million tons of office furniture end up in landfills annually in the United States (2018), with the pandemic and office closures/downsizes expected to heavily impact this number.

At JeffreyM, we closed one of our office spaces in June 2020 due to the pandemic. While we were hopeful to reopen it, our employees consistently gave feedback that they enjoyed remote work and found it more efficient. Ultimately, we decided to embrace this approach to support our employees’ mental health and allow them autonomy over where and how they work. When we made the decision not to reopen our secondary office, we were left with tons of office furniture. Not wanting to contribute to the ever-growing furniture waste problem, and in line with our CSR efforts, we made the decision to donate our gently used office furniture to a local organization that needed new furnishings.

We partnered with the Commercial Driver School (CDS), located throughout the Puget Sound region, which due to expansion needed new office furniture, as they require in-person learning and training for their prospective commercial drivers. We donated our gently used office furniture to CDS, including desks, chairs, and conference room furniture. The team at CDS was so easy to work with, and the furniture was a great upgrade for them, serving a new set of students, instructors, and personnel who move on to become trusted drivers on the road.

If you’re thinking of downsizing your office space, here are a few things to consider to reduce waste and give new life to items you may no longer need:

• Create an office furniture inventory, which will help you when talking to companies about what you have available to donate.
• Reach out to companies both within and outside of your industry. Focus on companies and industries that are unable to work on a remote basis.
• Engage with a reliable logistics provider to transfer. Without the right logistics provider, it can result in scheduling errors, damaged items, wrong locations, etc.

In our journey to find what worked best for our employees and our community, and through many conversations with potential donation venues and companies, we came to understand that there is no one-size-fits-all approach or solution to office space sustainability. Ultimately, we wanted to bring value to an organization within our local community that aligned with our values of creating more job opportunities for people. With that, a big thank you to CDS and we are delighted see our furniture put to good use.

Below are some links to get you started in your journey to keep furniture waste out of our landfills:

Green Donation Consultants | Deconstruction, Green Demolition

Office Furniture Resale, Donation & Recycling | Green Standards (greenstandardsltd.com)

Does Habitat ReStore offer furniture donation pickup? | Habitat for Humanity