Grant Thornton UK London

For its new London hub, Grant Thornton opted to take a 99,350-square-foot space being partly vacated by another organization. Recognizing the amount of useful life left in the existing space, Grant Thornton UK partnered with HLW and its in-house sustainability consultancy, BEYOND, to repurpose as much of the existing materials, furniture, and architectural elements as possible. 

The efforts achieved a 79 percent total reduction in embodied carbon, with 38 percent from repurposed flooring alone. The team reused 64 percent of finishes and over 1,700 pieces of existing furniture. During the renovation, all the construction and demolition waste was diverted from landfill and incineration. Items that could not be reused or repurposed were donated to a local charity, Waste to Wonder, which redistributes redundant office furniture to community organizations. 

All new materials brought into the project were vetted for a low Global Warming Potential (GWP). This included renewable cork, reclaimed wood, and coffee-ground-based furniture from Mater. The team developed a flexible “kit-of-parts” approach for ensuring cohesion between new and reused materials, enabling the office and its program to adapt to evolving ways of working in the future.