Franklin Templeton Office Furniture Finds Second Life at Community Organizations

Have you ever wondered what happened to your old office chair?

With the recently completed upgrades of offices in San Mateo, CA, Rancho Cordova, CA and Stamford, CT, 100% of the company’s no-longer-needed office furniture was diverted from the landfill, thanks to a partnership between Franklin Templeton’s Corporate Real Estate group and Green Standards, a non-profit focused on furniture reuse.

“We focused on repurposing as much unused furniture as possible, and we were fortunate to find organizations that had a use for our donations,” said Joseph Killian, Director, Real Estate and Facilities at Franklin Templeton.

The company committed to recycling 100% of the furniture that would have otherwise ended up in the landfill. This primarily involved reuse and recycling, as well as resale. Franklin Templeton views sustainability as its responsibility and prioritizes finding second lives for items or ensuring environmentally conscious disposal of unused assets.

According to 2018 estimates from the US Environmental Protection Agency, up to 8.5 million tons, or 17 billion pounds, of office assets end up in US landfills annually. The partnership with Green Standards, whose mission is to reuse, recycle and donate used furniture, has helped Franklin Templeton to reduce its environmental footprint and make positive impacts on communities.

As part of the California and Connecticut projects, Green Standards removed furniture from the firm’s campuses, diverting 100% of it from landfill. After removal, for the furniture that could not be repurposed was sorted by material. Metal is recycled to create new materials. Wood is recycled to produce animal bedding for agricultural use ground into smaller pieces for alternative city ground cover or incorporated into new wood products.

“It has been rewarding working on the Stamford 100 project. We reused or recycled 86% of the furniture for the refresh project, resold 12% and donated 2%. I am very proud of the initiative,” said Jocelyn Rose, Facility Manager for Franklin Templeton in Stamford, CA.

These efforts will continue with current and future projects around the globe.

Important Information

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