- Posted onAugust 25, 2025
- By Jessica I. Marschall, CPA, ISA AM President & CEO, Green Mission ESG Strategies
After more than 25 years as a CPA, and the past five years advising donors, nonprofits, and corporations on the tax and financial implications of reuse and deconstruction, I saw a clear gap that could no longer be ignored. The environmental urgency was growing. The market interest was increasing. But the supporting infrastructure (the tools, financial models, and credible data needed to make the secondary market function) was still incomplete. That is why, at the ripe old age of 49, I chose to launch Green Mission ESG Solutions to function alongside our other companies The Green Mission, Probity Appraisal Group, and MAS LLC.
The practice of deconstruction and material donation began over twenty years ago as a response to landfill overuse, embodied carbon, and wasted value in the built environment. Since then, a passionate network of nonprofits, contractors, and sustainability advocates has made progress diverting materials like fixtures, millwork, appliances, and furniture. Yet despite all that effort, we still do not have a reliable, scalable marketplace that brings together willing buyers and willing sellers in real time.
Many organizations doing this work are stretched thin. Others are well-intentioned but under-resourced, lacking the logistical infrastructure or financial guidance to consistently monetize donated assets. Valuable materials often stall in transition. Resale networks are fragmented. ESG reporting rarely reflects economic reality. And donations that should be high-impact sometimes yield little more than good intentions and tax forms.
Green Mission ESG Solutions was created to address these challenges with practical, grounded solutions that merge financial rigor, market-based logic, and ESG alignment. We are not here to study the reuse problem again. We are here to help fix it.
GM ESG Solutions: 2025 Program Highlights
We are launching a comprehensive suite of tools, partnerships, and advisory services designed to bring economic clarity and valuation, ESG relevance, and market scalability to the reuse sector. Our 2025 initiatives include:
In collaboration with sustainability expert Garr Punnett of Loop Layer, Green Mission ESG Solutions is integrating its proprietary valuation database into an AI-powered inventory platform. This database has been developed over five and a half years of real-world valuation work across both nonprofit and for-profit deconstruction projects. By combining this extensive data set with Loop Layer’s technology, we are creating a tool that brings structure, transparency, and efficiency to the reuse supply chain.
The platform enables photographic cataloging, asset tagging, and searchable listings across multiple reuse networks. It is designed to integrate with existing software used for inventory matching, point-of-sale transactions, and valuation reporting. The objective is to accelerate material placement, improve network visibility, and reduce landfill waste by making reuse more accessible and data-informed.
This system functions as a macro-economic tool for modeling the national secondary market and as a micro-economic tool for analyzing regional trends and product-specific dynamics. It gives participants in the reuse economy the ability to evaluate supply and demand, calculate per-unit acquisition and holding costs, and make decisions based on real-time financial modeling. This is a foundational step toward building a consistent and scalable secondary market for building materials.
2. Market Margin Analysis Between Donors and Secondary Retailers
At GM ESG, we do not care whether reuse is driven by profit or principle…and neither does the environment. Our focus is on making the economics work. We provide financial modeling and advisory services to map gross margins from recovery to resale, helping determine whether materials should be sold locally, regionally, or nationally to maximize value. By capturing real economic data and estimating margins, we prove that reuse can be profitable. That profitability is what will bring more participants into the secondary market; whether their motivation is saving money, making money, or saving the planet. In the end, when resale and donation generate revenue, fewer valuable materials are wasted, and both the U.S. and Canada can begin to break the habit of throwing away what still holds economic value.
Even with consistent supply emerging from deconstruction, the demand for reused materials remains underdeveloped. GM ESG works with both emerging secondary retailers and existing primary market players to build professional advertising and brand strategies. We advise clients on how much investment is needed to generate demand across specific product categories (hint…it is a lot of money, see below), using data on price elasticity, demographic targeting, and conversion rates.
For an emerging segment like the secondary building materials market, businesses typically allocate 7 to 15 percent of gross revenue toward advertising and marketing :
- 7 to 10 percent is a standard marketing budget across many industries.
- Startups and high-growth companies, including those in the reuse and circular economy sectors, often invest 10 to 20 percent of revenue to build brand awareness, demand, and market position.
Construction Materials Market (U.S. and Canada)
- The United States construction materials market (new materials) was valued at approximately USD 146.8 billion in 2022, with a projected compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 3.7 percent through 2030.
- Canada’s construction materials market was estimated at approximately USD 68.2 billion in 2024, with a projected CAGR of 3.8 percent through 2031.
Combined, the total construction materials market in the U.S. and Canada is currently around USD 215 billion.
Secondary (Reclaimed and Recycled) Building Materials Segment
While direct data on reused materials is limited, we can extrapolate from related market segments:
- The global recycled construction materials market was valued at USD 18 billion in 2024, with a projected CAGR of 7.5 percent through 2032.
- The global reclaimed lumber market was valued at USD 57 billion in 2024, projected to reach USD 83.5 billion by 2034.
Given North America’s 40–45 percent share of the global construction materials market and its similar standing in the sustainable materials segment, it is appropriate to estimate the U.S. and Canadian share of recycled construction materials (USD 18 billion) and reclaimed lumber (USD 57 billion) at approximately 30–40 percent. That yields an estimated North American market size between:
- Recycled materials: USD 5.4 – 7.2 billion
- Reclaimed lumber: USD 17.1 – 22.8 billion
To meaningfully expand the secondary market and bring supply and demand into alignment, advertising and marketing investments, let’s estimate a midpoint value of 15 percent of gross revenue. Based on current market size estimates, this translates to approximately $800 million to $3.6 billion in strategic investment across the U.S. and Canadian markets in advertising and marketing to generate sufficient traction for the market to function at scale.
Highlights from this legislative expansion, the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (2025):
- QSBS gain exclusion increased to $15 million
- Tiered phase-in of exclusion beginning at year 3
- Asset cap raised from $50 million to $75 million
- More generous timelines and eligibility rules
We model margins at each stage, from donation pickup to resale, to demonstrate the viability of these ventures as true business opportunities. Our goal: stimulate for-profit market entry in the circular economy.
Traditional ESG reporting in the reuse industry often fails to meet the needs of CFOs, controllers, and auditors. Metrics like “tons diverted” or “CO₂e avoided” are helpful but abstract, lacking a direct link to financial statements or market valuations. GM ESG Solutions now provides ESG deliverables, working with our partners Carbon Wise of Vancouver, Canada, that align lifecycle metrics with economic value tiers:
- Primary Retail Price
- Wholesale Value
- IRS Fair Market Value
- Orderly Liquidation Value
- Forced Liquidation Value
Carbon Wise, under the leadership of Elisabeth Baudinaud, is one of North America’s most respected firms in carbon lifecycle modeling and low-carbon policy implementation. Based in Vancouver, the Carbon Wise team brings deep experience in life-cycle assessment (LCA), embodied carbon reporting, and building science. Their work supports developers, architects, and sustainability-driven institutions with advanced modeling tools that link carbon data to compliance and design performance. Together, we are merging carbon-based metrics with economic valuation systems to produce ESG reporting that is measurable, audit-ready, and financially actionable.
To complement this data infrastructure, GM ESG has contracted with United Assets Management, led by Nichole Erickson, to manage the logistics and material movement as well as asset placement for our operations. Nichole brings over a decade of experience in commercial asset management and distribution. Her team provides warehousing, transport coordination, and real-time inventory control to support our deconstruction clients across North America. With this exclusive partnership, GM ESG can now control not just valuation and reporting, but also the physical execution required to move materials efficiently and credibly through the secondary market.
With both Carbon Wise and United Assets Management as strategic partners, GM ESG now delivers fully integrated services. From environmental reporting to economic valuation to logistics, we ensure we can plug in wherever needed and help build a more functional and scalable reuse economy.
By mapping carbon savings to actual resale values, CFOs gain visibility into how reuse initiatives impact:
- Capital expenditures
- Tax positions and depreciation schedules
- Disposal cost avoidance
- ESG assurance and investor-grade disclosures
Our deliverables include audit-ready data files with photographic records, valuation support, and integrated dashboards that show environmental impact per dollar of recovery.
Commercial deconstruction often includes complex systems including solar panel arrays, large HVAC units, and specialized manufacturing machinery. These systems, even when fully depreciated, still carry significant resale value. GM ESG helps clients identify, recover, and place these assets, and integrate those gains into forecasting and internal revenue models.
7. Rethinking Corporate Furnishings: The Cubicle Crisis
Office furniture is a persistent pain point. Items such as custom cubicle systems and large conference tables are often expensive to purchase and nearly impossible to resell. A $35,000 custom-made conference table may appraise at $700 in FMV, if placed at all. A $25,000 cubicle system may resell and value for $300.
GM ESG is working with manufacturers, donors, and secondary sellers to:
- Design take-back programs and refurbishment models
- Build financial incentives for manufacturers to reclaim and resell
- Model scenarios where reclaiming for free, then reselling at a margin, becomes economically rational
- Work existing PPE into remodeling through refurbishment and restoration.
We also are working closely with those already in this secondary market space who have done the years of good work already to bring us to this point. We are confronting the reality of resale economics head-on and helping develop new product lifecycles that make reuse profitable, not just possible.
Not every donation should be accepted. If materials are deconstructed, transported, and “stored” indefinitely only to end up in a dumpster, the tax deduction and ESG credit is illusory. Worse, the carbon and logistical costs of moving unsellable inventory can outweigh the benefits.
We are developing a dynamic materials demand matrix, which includes:
- High- vs. low-demand categories by material and product type
- Typical FMV ranges on the resale market
- Time-on-market data from secondary retailers
- Recommendations for donation eligibility standards
This tool will help nonprofits, donors, and tax advisors make more accurate decisions, grounded in actual reuse outcomes.
In 2025, Green Mission ESG Solutions has taken on a growing number of large corporate deconstruction and donation engagements, often brought in as a second opinion provider for fair market value (FMV) estimation. What we are discovering is deeply concerning: systemic overvaluation of donated assets, particularly in commercial machinery, industrial systems, and specialty architectural materials.
We regularly encounter FMV claims in the millions of dollars for materials and equipment that, even in ideal resale conditions, would struggle to command more than a few hundred thousand dollars on the open secondary market. These valuations often appear to lack credible comparable sales support, market-based liquidation modeling, or realistic condition adjustments. The appraisals frequently ignore actual resale velocity, demand, and cost to move or refurbish the items, which should be reflected in the IRS defined FMV.
This pattern is an echo of the overvaluation problem we first identified in the residential deconstruction donation space, but at a much larger corporate scale. Worse still, many of these reports are produced by firms charging six-figure fees, which incentivizes inflated values and may create significant exposure for corporate donors.
📄 The One Big Beautiful Bill Act: Non-Cash Donation Compliance in 2025
Key Compliance Updates That Heighten Audit Risk:
- Mandatory contemporaneous documentation requirements expanded
- Stricter thresholds for IRS Qualified Appraiser credentials
- Enhanced audit triggers for donations over $500,000 in value
- Valuation penalties apply for substantial overstatements, even if made in good faith
Corporate donors relying on inflated appraisals are exposing themselves to disallowed deductions, back taxes, interest, and 20%–40% valuation misstatement penalties. Additionally, publicly traded companies could face reputational harm and audit failures from ESG reporting inconsistencies if values are later deemed non-defensible.
The responsibility lies with the donor/taxpayer not the nonprofit(s) and/or appraisers. An Errors and Omissions (E&O) insurance policy held by an appraiser is intended to protect the appraiser from claims of professional negligence or mistakes made during the course of their work. However, this type of insurance does not offer any protection to the taxpayer. If the IRS determines that an appraisal is noncompliant or that the value has been significantly overstated, the taxpayer is solely responsible for the consequences. These may include denial of the deduction, repayment of taxes, interest, and substantial penalties for valuation misstatements. The presence of an E&O policy does not shield the donor from audit exposure or financial liability. It is therefore critical that taxpayers verify that their appraiser meets all IRS qualifications and that the appraisal is thoroughly documented, properly supported by market data, and compliant with IRS standards.
Green Mission ESG Solutions is working to restore credibility in the deconstruction appraisal space by:
- Conducting conservative, market-supported FMV appraisals tied to actual resale data
- Aligning values with IRS definitions, orderly and forced liquidation logic, and resale feasibility
- Delivering audit-ready appraisals with complete substantiation of methodology, comps, and assumptions
- Partnering with corporations pre-donation to ensure that their tax, legal, and ESG disclosures are accurate, supportable, and low-risk
We firmly believe that honest valuation protects the circular economy. Appraisals should be a tool for transparency, not a loophole for abuse. As more corporations join the reuse movement, we are committed to ensuring that their participation is grounded in ethical, defensible, and sustainable valuation practice.
Green Mission ESG Solutions is not here to study the reuse problem again. We are building a system that aligns the reuse industry with the realities of financial planning, ESG compliance, and business profitability.
Our value proposition is simple:
Let us help you bring your deconstruction and reuse strategy into financial focus, with tools built for CFOs, advisors, and decision-makers.
