How do you turn 50,000 tons of corporate waste into $25M in charitable donations?

North Rowan High School was revitalizing its design centers and needed new furniture. Green Standards was able to help out by facilitating in-kind office furniture donations from one of its clients – a local, Fortune 100 financial institution.

While transforming the GP Center’s 500,000 square feet of office space, Georgia-Pacific partnered with Green Standards to sustainably decommission 600 tons of office furniture and equipment, while providing in-kind donations to 50+ non-profits in Metro Atlanta, including the Salvation Army.

The in-kind donations, valued at $534,584 to date, have benefited numerous organizations across North America including Youth Speaks, Habitat For Humanity and Educare of California at Silicon Valley.

The MukiBaum Accessibility Centre is 1 of 17 beneficiaries that received furniture and equipment donations from OMERS through our partnership. OMERS was able to repurpose valuable products with a 99% landfill diversion rate on 400+ tons of surplus assets. The OMERS project has received multiple sustainability and CSR awards for these efforts.

“This donation and what we’re celebrating is revitalizing this workspace to make it more hospitable, more efficient and more professional so that we can go about doing the business of the Red Cross.” - Henry Van de Putte, American Red Cross Texas Gulf Coast Region

The donated items included whiteboards, conference tables, fridges, chairs and a washer and dryer. “It’s all about the kids, and this is going to help us better support our kids, and those outside in the local community. This donation makes a huge difference” said Lisa Kaufman, Executive Director of Educare at Silicon Valley.

"We want to thank Green Standards for coordinating and delivering donations of teller safes and file cabinets to our Habitat affiliate. Several of the file cabinets will be used in our offices and the income raised through the sale of your donated products at our ReStore will be used to purchase building materials for the construction of Habitat homes in Union County, NC this spring." - Mike Reece, Executive Director

Through its ongoing partnership with Green Standards, Enbridge provided Chestermere Food Bank with enough furniture and equipment to furnish the majority of their office space and warehouse. “Thanks to the donation we can now put money towards commercial fridges and freezers,” said Oel at the Food Bank.

“This is huge! Thanks to Green Standards and its corporate partners, we were able to launch a first rate Neighborhood Resource Center and completely furnish a computer lab, library, conference room and set up offices for 7 employees,” said Richard Logan, President and CEO of Attack Poverty.

Thanks to a national partnership between TELUS and Green Standards, Lester B. Pearson Educational Foundation and Place Cartier were able to receive over 80 donated items, which included school-room essentials like chairs, desks, and cabinets. “We’re now better equipped to work with our students, especially our special needs students,” said Myriam Rabbat, director of Place Cartier.

“Our chairs were dilapidated,” said Jessica. “Some were missing wheels, some were way past their prime, and others were just gross to look at. Some of the staff started bringing stuff from home to compensate for their broken-down stuff at the office.” Green Standards facilitated the donation of 40 task chairs to the staff replacing their old chairs.

"On behalf of our entire KIPP LA Team and Family, I want to thank you so much for the incredibly generous furniture donation – it’s beautiful! Your support means so much to our schools and students who will be able to enjoy this modern and innovative furniture." - The KIPP LA Team & Family

"Thanks to this donation, Life Remodeled will be able to offer comfortable seating to students and community members who visit the center. Thank you for making the space look extra special." - Kelly Cleaver, Development Director

"Working with Green Standards has allowed us to have a great space for children and youth to come in and to manage. We can now focus some of that energy and time and money towards more meaningful tangible things for our participants within our programs. The donation has revitalized our space and transformed it drastically" - Shawn Burgess, Community Director at St. Alban's Boys & Girls Club.

“In an effort to feed 58,000 people each week, we rely heavily on donations that help us function in a professional and efficient manner,” said Eric S. Cooper, president and CEO of the San Antonio Food Bank, one of several non-profit agencies benefiting from Frost’s furniture donations through the decommission of the Rand Building.