February/March 2009
Recycling News
C O N T E N T S
Executive Director's Corner: Crossing The Potomoc
LEED: Fort Carson Building Awarded First Army LEED Gold
Neighborhood Development: LEED Neighborhood Development in Colorado
Recyling News: Some Thoughts on Recycling Old Office Furnishings
Sustainable Development: Creating a Sustainable Future
Getting Green Done: Forgive Me Father, I Don't Have the Money
Sustainable Strategy: Creating Effective Collaboration and Leadership Tactics
Executive Director's Corner: Major Speaker Announced for May Conference
Metro Branch Update: Denver Metro Branch is Looking for Volunteers
VISION
Promote responsibility for Colorado's environmental legacy.
MISSION
Advance and promote sustainable planning, design, construction and operation of the built environment through education, improving industry guidelines, policy advocacy, and information and resource sharing.
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Dana Kose, Chair
Universal Development Company
Jim Bradburn, Vice Chair, Chair Elect
RMH Group
Megan Christensen, Secretary
US LendLease Communities
Sebastian De Atucha, Treasurer
3BY
Clay Benson, Director at Large
Mortenson Construction
Mike Lowell, Director, Advocacy
US GSA
Bobby Molinary, Director, Membership
Julie Edwards, Director, Education
Oz Architecture
Matt Arabasz, Director,Northern Colorado Branch
RB+B Architects, Inc.
Joshua Radoff, Director, Resource Development, and Communications
YRG Sustainability Consultants
Bethany Trumble, Director, Southern Colorado Branch
Farnsworth Group, Inc.
Liz Sharrer, Director, Metro Branch
Holland & Hart
Mike Kolesar, Director, Emerging Green Builders
Facilities Engineering Associates
Deb Kleinman
Executive Director,
USGBC Colorado Chapter
Colorado Building Green is the official newsletter of the U.S. Green Building Council – Colorado Chapter, and is published bi-monthly. If you are interested in submiting a story, ideas or other information for publication, please contact the editor at dgloffreda@msn.com
Some Thoughts on Recyling Old Office Furnishings
Where Does All The Old Furniture Go?
By Kathey Pear, Owner and President of Citron Work Spaces and Co-Founder of Facilities Cycle
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Since systems furniture, often called “cubicles” or “workstations” was introduced into the U.S. in the late 1960s, it has become widely accepted as a corporate standard for office workers. Now, forty years later, there are literally millions of aging workstation panels, worksurfaces, drawer pedestals and other pieces and parts piling up in storage lockers, trailers, basement storage rooms, and warehouses throughout North America. The majority of this product is old, outdated, and well past it’s useful lifecycle. Most of it is sitting behind closed doors because it’s become a nuisance for facility managers, property managers and building owners who simply don’t have good alternatives for dealing with all this no longer needed “stuff”. There has been little incentive for anyone to come up with good recycling options. And making calls to find non-profits willing accept used furniture donations takes a lot of time and energy away from more immediate work demands. Dumping huge volumes of bulky, unwanted material into a landfill isn’t appealing to anyone. However, it often becomes the final solution for disposal of unwanted furniture.
Here is a big contributor to this problem: furniture and other physical corporate assets are “valued” based on a depreciation schedule provided by the Internal Revenue Service. Once these assets have been “fully depreciated”, they can no longer be “written off” against corporate revenue, hence they have no “value”. So, although they may be easily reused or repurposed as donations, corporations tend to treat fully depreciated furniture and equipment as having little or no real value.
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Because systems furniture is composed of many different materials, and each manufactured systems furniture product line has a unique material content and construction process, it has long been considered too problematic and unprofitable to attempt to “disassemble” these products into their component materials. About a year ago, armed with some healthy skepticism and a passion for keeping stuff out of landfills, we began exploring less labor-intensive ways to recycle systems furniture.