Helping Expedia Group sustainably decommission 600,000 square feet

While moving their global headquarters to a new Seattle campus, Expedia Group partnered with Green Standards in October 2019 to sustainably decommission 600,000 square feet of office space across multiple buildings in the region. The success of these projects led to our work with Expedia Group internationally and has made in-kind donations of furniture to more than 100 non-profits, while diverting 100% of their surplus inventory from landfill.

Challenge

While preparing to relocate corporate offices in Bellevue for their new campus, Expedia Group’s Real Estate and Facilities team wanted to complete the move with minimal impact on the environment. To do this, they formed a partnership with Green Standards to help manage the removal and repurposing of surplus office assets including chairs, desks, tables, filing cabinets, and electronics.

With a 95%+ landfill diversion goal and more than 5,000 employees worth of furnishings to be repurposed, they required in-depth reporting to benchmark the environmental and social performance of their projects. As the largest capital project in the Pacific Northwest, Expedia Group sought to lead by example and ensure minimal impact on the environment.

Solution

Expedia Group required a turnkey provider with the specialized knowledge, networks, and processes in place to facilitate the decommission and donation of tens of thousands of items while maintaining project timelines and budgets.

Green Standards took responsibility for the entire process; from onboarding and managing commercial movers, to engaging eligible local non-profits, to coordinating and documenting asset delivery, to providing environmental and community impact reporting.

By combining donation, resale, and recycling strategies with turnkey project management, Green Standards would maximize asset recovery, streamline community donation, and virtually eliminate waste from Expedia Group’s former offices.

Result

As a result of this partnership, Expedia Group has diverted 928 tons of furniture from landfill, avoiding a total of 2,611 tons of CO2e emissions. In total, 100% of Expedia Group’s furniture and equipment was kept out of landfills, benefitting over 100 local non-profit organizations.

With plans for office consolidation internationally, Expedia Group began deploying Green Standards’ program across Europe in 2020, with notable projects in the UK, Spain, Norway, Italy, Switzerland, Turkey, and Denmark.

The below map of our work together highlights project sites in navy and benefiting organizations and non-profits in green. All beneficiaries were within a close proximity to the buildings where the decommissioning work occurred, saving costs on delivery and eliminating any double handling or storage fees. 

Asset Distribution