Carbon and Your Client’s Real Estate

Understand the Impact on Real Estate Investment

On average, 9 percent of a company’s investment is in its real estate, and 90 percent in its workforce. A low-carbon approach to interiors is a responsible way of safeguarding and leveraging both investments.  

Lower the Cost of First Refresh

On average, commercial interiors are refreshed every five years. By building in strategies for flexible design, reuse, and recycling, low-carbon interiors can lower the cost of the refreshes, renovations, and improvements. 

Find Savings in Waste

Only 0.4 percent of all construction waste currently gets recycled. Low-carbon interiors cost less to refresh or demolish because the materials and products can be reused, recycled, or responsibly processed at the end of life. Lowering the amount of construction waste also lowers Municipal Solid Waste landfill tipping fees, which are increasing each year all over the United States. 

Save through Furniture Reuse

12 million tons of furniture end up in U.S. landfills each year, and 8.5 million tons of that is office furniture. Furniture is generally built to last far longer than it ever gets used. By implementing barcoding and inventory tracking, furniture can become a more integral part of the planning process with many benefits to the client:

• Saving the company money on unnecessary purchases of new furniture 
• Keeping useable furniture out of landfills, contributing to the company’s sustainability goals
• Providing opportunities to donate furniture to nonprofits and other deserving organizations, contributing to the company’s social impact