Client Goals
The customer, a Fortune 500 company in the hospitality sector, approached our organization with several objectives for decommission, prioritizing donations to qualifying charitable
organizations and government entities that also enabled their organization a non-cash charitable
contribution. Other important objectives included:
- Divert as much as possible from landfill
- Maximize donations to (only) organizations meeting the IRS criteria for non-cashcharitable contributions tax deductibility.
- Provide accurate IRS reporting conclusions for the value of all donated goods.
- Meet the timeline for removing all furniture from the offices.
- Reintegration into existing and additional corporate spaces.
- Employee donation initiatives.
Challenges and Hesitations
While previous asset disposition efforts diverted substantial materials from landfill, issues emerged around inconsistent donation placements and failure to maximize IRS-eligible non-cash
charitable contributions. For this project, the client wanted a solution that ensured strict
donation protocols, reliable valuation, and maximum waste diversion, all on an aggressive timeline.
Solutions and Sustainability Innovations
The client engaged us early in the process, allowing our team to implement a fully managed, valuation-driven decommission strategy. Key innovations included:
- Detailed Front-End Inventory Mapping: A complete catalog of assets designated for reuse, donation, or employee distribution prevented misallocation and allowed accurate matching with recipient organizations.
- Strict Donation Qualification Controls: Only IRS-qualified nonprofits and public entities received donations, protecting the client’s eligibility for non-cash charitable contribution reporting.
- Valuation-Centric Approach: Assets were evaluated using a multi-tiered methodology reflecting IRS Fair Market Value (FMV) and industry-standard resale scenarios, supporting both tax documentation and ESG reporting.
- Strategic Logistics Coordination: Collaboration with asset management and logistics partners ensured timely removals, efficient placements, and minimal handling errors.
- Sustainability-Focused Redistribution: Non-reusable items, such as customized cubicles, were responsibly recycled, while smaller assets were warehoused for phased donation as recipient needs arose.
Results and Benefits
- Reuse Rate of 87.6%: Out of 2,338 total items, 2,048 were reused, representing a significant improvement over prior-year performance. But read below for the actual economic value of what went to the landfill…this is important.
- Nearly Half a Million Dollars in Donations: $497,040 in FMV eligible for IRS reporting as noncash charitable contributions, plus an additional $72,845 in property reincorporated internally or distributed to employees.
- High-Impact Community Placements: Over 2,800 assets—including 616 chairs, 93 tables, and 130 office sets—were placed with schools, nonprofits, and community organizations.
- Minimized Landfill Disposal: Disposal was limited to just 6.42% of total assets (by count), largely unavoidable items like custom casework and metal filing cabinets.
- Accurate, Transparent Reporting: Comprehensive item-level documentation provided audit-ready valuation data and ESG metrics.
- Improved Operational Efficiency: Early engagement and superior project management ensured smooth execution and on-time project completion.
Hidden Obstacles and Future Opportunities
While nearly 3,000 assets were placed with nonprofits, schools, and community centers, and other furnishings found new life through employee giveaways, this number reflects an item count
rather than monetary value. The reused items had a FMV of approximately $570,000 but read
below to see how this translates into total original acquisition cost and current economic value.
- The estimated original acquisition cost of the property scope was approximately $2.31M. The estimated IRS Fair Market Value at the time of donation was around $855k for all property. By simply being put in service, the property depreciated 63% in a few short years. Even though 87.6% of property was donated or reused this was by count and not by economic value. Only 68% of the economic value was reused while 32% went to recycling or the landfill. Looping this back to the original acquisition cost, $739,200 of high quality, in some cases like-new property was thrown out due to lack of demand or ability to reuse and around $360k was thrown out.
- Severe Depreciation: These items, while high in original acquisition cost, retained just 16% of initial value at Fair Market Value (FMV) and just 3% at forced liquidation. These findings confirm that commercial furnishings and casework are highly depreciating assets, particularly cubicles and large conference tables, which are often custom-fitted and difficult to reuse.
- Market Saturation and Obsolescence: Custom sizing, poor modularity, and shifting office design trends resulted in near-zero placement viability, classifying most units as unavoidable waste.
- Diversion Rate vs. Diversion Value: While many industry reports emphasize unit-based diversion percentages, this project revealed that high diversion rates can mask low-value recoveries. Without valuation-attached reporting, diversion metrics risk overstating environmental and financial outcomes.
- Transparent, Valuation-Attached Reporting: This project’s reporting differentiated itself by capturing both quantity and value of diverted assets, avoiding inflated or greenwashed claims common in standard recycling-focused reports. Our reports are written and modeled by our CEO who is also a CPA and are typically around 400-800 pages. Metrics are objectively presented with a goal being towards improving upon original asset acquisition costs to save money on the front end and procure property with a longer lifespan and better integrated reuse options on the back end.
These obstacles reinforce the need for proactive obsolescence management and highlight the importance of forward-thinking design choices in future sustainability outcomes. In recognizing
this challenge, the client has begun exploring more modular, reusable workspace solutions for
future procurement cycles to reduce unavoidable waste in future decommissions.
Conclusion
Through strategic planning, responsible vendor selection, and valuation-informed reuse practices, this leading hospitality brand diverted substantial volume from landfills, built community
connections through its charitable donations, and reduced its taxable income through accurate
and honest IRS documentation.
This project exemplifies how corporate leaders, such as this global brand, can partner with The Green Mission to merge environmental responsibility with financial stewardship through
responsible office decommissioning. By continuing to partner with firms like us, the client can
influence a broader national shift in reuse strategies, secondary market expansion, and long-term
design improvements.
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