Posted onAugust 25, 2025
By Jessica I. Marschall, CPA, ISA AM, President & CEO The Green Mission Inc., Probity Appraisal Group, MAS LLC, and GM ESG

Every year, businesses discard staggering amounts of office and hospitality furniture, fixtures, and even interior building materials (like partition walls and doors). Most of these items end up in landfills despite often being in usable condition. The result is not only an environmental tragedy but also a missed economic opportunity. This deep dive explores the current state of the secondary market for used commercial furniture and equipment, why progress in reuse has been slow (especially among traditional decommissioning companies), what innovative firms like The Green Mission Inc. and our new company GM ESG are doing, and how organizations can reduce waste through smarter procurement, reuse practices, and partnerships. The goal is to show how consistently channeling retired assets into reuse can drive demand, strengthen the secondary market, and make sustainability profitable for all participants.

Working alongside their team has already proven to be one of the most rewarding collaborations in our expansion across the Midwest. As Green Mission ESG Solutions continues to grow, we are proud to deepen our work together on both residential and commercial projects, ensuring that valuable materials do not end up in landfills but instead serve new purposes in homes, businesses, and communities.

The Scope of Commercial Furniture Waste in North America

Commercial furniture waste is a massive and often overlooked waste stream. In the United States alone, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) estimated that Americans generated 12.2 million tons of furniture waste in 2017, and a shocking 80% of it went to landfills.

F listed wastes are those particular wastestreams which come from certain common industrial or manufacturing processes. Generally, these are chemicals which have been used for their intended purpose in an industrial process. Because of this, F list wastes are commonly known as “manufacturing process wastes.” It is important to note that the manner in which a waste is generated often plays a key role in how it is identified.

In other words, each year about 17 billion pounds of office desks, chairs, cubicles, carpeting, and other assets are simply thrown away. By 2018, furniture discards had grown 450% since 1960. illustrating how the problem has accelerated in recent decades.

This waste carries significant costs. Unwanted office and hotel furniture in landfills incur hundreds of millions of dollars in disposal fees (one estimate puts it at over $450 million per year in U.S. landfill tipping fees for office furniture alone).

Moreover, landfilled furniture is a sustainability setback: vast resources (wood, metals, plastics, fabrics) embedded in these items are lost, and as furniture breaks down (or is incinerated), it releases greenhouse gases and other pollutants. According to recent data, about 9 million tons of furniture waste are still being added to U.S. landfills each year, contributing to methane emissions and other environmental impacts.

Why is so much furniture wasted? One culprit is “fast furniture”, cheaply made, low-cost furnishings that have short lifespans. Just as fast fashion has led to clothing being treated as disposable, fast furniture encourages frequent replacement over repair or reuse. Many modern pieces are made of mixed materials (woods, laminates, plastics, foams) that are difficult to recycle, so when they break or go out of style, disposal often seems easier. Taking furniture apart for material recycling is labor-intensive and costly, which is why only about 0.3% of discarded furniture was recycled in 2017, per the EPA. The rest overwhelmingly goes to landfill, since dumping remains the cheapest, most convenient option in many cases.

Commercial practices have also played a role. Businesses regularly renovate offices, relocate, or upgrade hotel interiors on tight timelines, generating sudden surpluses of furniture and fixtures. Traditionally, the path of least resistance has been hiring liquidators or waste haulers to quickly clear out the old furnishings. As we will see, this conventional approach has severely limited the development of a functioning reuse market for commercial furniture.

Why Reuse Lags: Challenges and Limited Progress in Decommissioning

Despite growing awareness of sustainability, the commercial furniture decommissioning industry has been slow to change its old habits. The typical office decommission or hotel renovation still results in a high percentage of furnishings being removed as waste. A veteran of the industry described that “the conventional solution has been the liquidator who takes it to a landfill.” In other words, most companies charged with clearing out old offices simply junk the goods rather than find new owners. With so much churn in today’s workplaces (companies downsizing, relocating, or renovating post-pandemic), continuing the “easy” practice of dumping will lead to truly tragic amounts of waste, experts warn.

Why have conventional decommissioning and liquidation companies made so little progress toward reuse? Several key challenges have held the secondary market back:

Logistical Difficulty and Time Pressure: Clearing out a large office or hotel for a new tenant or remodel is time-sensitive. Coordinating the pickup, sale, or donation of hundreds of items to various outlets requires planning and effort. It us often perceived as easier to hit the “easy button” or tear everything out and send it to the landfill in one sweep. Liquidators are paid to empty the space quickly; finding reuse options can seem like a complication if not planned in advance.
Fragmented Demand for Used Items: Offices and hotels typically want a consistent look or brand image and may be reluctant to mix in second-hand items. Meanwhile, smaller businesses or nonprofits that could use the furniture are not always connected to those liquidating. This mismatch means liquidators sometimes struggle to quickly sell large volumes of used furniture at a good price, especially if items are highly customized or dated. (In the hotel industry, for example, liquidation companies often resell used goods at about 25% of the original price to lower-tier hotels or thrift buyers. Many items do find second homes this way, but anything not sold or needed may still be dumped.)
Product Design and Condition: As noted, modern furniture can be hard to disassemble or repair. Office chairs often contain dozens of different materials and chemicals, making direct reuse far more sustainable than trying to recycle them. Yet if chairs are broken or excessively worn, finding a reuse outlet is challenging. Built-in furniture or bespoke interior fixtures (like custom cabinetry or partitions) might not fit new spaces easily. And if assets have little market value, a liquidator has no financial incentive to do more than scrap or trash them.
Lack of Industry Standards or Requirements: Unlike materials such as metal, paper, or electronics, there have historically been few regulations or producer responsibilities for furniture end-of-life. Until recently, sustainability in office transitions was optional. Many companies simply did not prioritize where their old furniture went, as long as it was offsite. (This is slowly changing with corporate ESG goals and zero-waste commitments, but it is not yet universal and may yet weaken with political winds.)

These challenges have meant that, aside from a few leading examples, reuse and recycling of commercial furniture have only inched forward, and millions of tons still end up in landfills each year. Even in the hospitality sector, where throwing away hundreds of nearly identical hotel room sets might seem obviously wasteful, progress has been modest. A 2018 hotel industry review noted “more and more hotels” are combining renovations with resale, donation, and recycling efforts rather than dumping. Yet it remains common for hotels to pay liquidators to haul away furniture, incurring costs and waste

To be fair, a “cottage industry” of sustainable office decommissioning has begun to emerge in the past decade. Specialists in furniture reuse and recycling now operate in the U.S. and Canada, stepping in where traditional liquidators have fallen short. For instance, companies like Green Standards (based in Toronto), Rheaply (Chicago), or Globechain (London) have built business models around diverting office furniture from landfills by donating it to charities or selling it at a discount to organizations that need affordable furnishings. Installnet’s “EcoServ” program is another great program, working through a nationwide network of installers to redistribute used furniture and equipment. The very existence of these firms is evidence that demand for sustainable solutions is growing. Their impact, while significant in individual projects, is still small compared to the total volume of furniture waste, indicating how much more of the market remains untapped.

A growing number of decommissioning projects now aim to intercept used office furniture before it reaches the dump. In one large Seattle office clean-out, the conventional liquidator approach would have sent 969 tons of desks, chairs, and fixtures straight to landfill, but a specialized reuse service instead brokered the resale and donation of everything, so nothing was landfilled. Such success stories are inspiring change, but they are still the exception in an industry where 8.5 million tons are discarded annually.

Overall, despite these pioneering efforts, the big picture is that most companies “say they can do it, but don’t do it well,” as one sustainable decommissioning CEO observed bluntly. Reusing office and hotel furniture is possible, indeed, some projects have diverted virtually 100% of assets from landfill, but it requires overcoming the inertia of old practices. The next sections explore how innovators like The Green Mission Inc. and our new company GM ESG are partnering with existing market participants to tackle these challenges and what can be done to supercharge the secondary market for commercial furnishings.

Innovative Approaches: How The Green Mission Inc. and GM ESG is Different

GM ESG is the newest expansion of The Green Mission Inc., created to support building owners, sustainability leaders, and ESG-aligned companies with scalable waste diversion strategies. Our value proposition lies in our ability to work alongside existing players in the sustainability space or independently. We offer service tiers: valuation and ESG reporting only, IRS Qualified Appraisals for donation, and/or full-service decommissioning.

We now have the internal infrastructure to manage entire projects from assessment through removal. What sets us apart from typical movers or liquidators is our holistic model: bringing together expert project management, IRS-qualified donation valuation, and tax incentive strategy.

By analyzing the economic value of surplus assets, we help companies make better financial and environmental decisions on both the front end of asset procurement and the back end of disposal. The result is not only higher financial returns but meaningful progress toward a triple bottom line of People, Planet, and Profit. In essence, TGMI and GM ESG act as a bridge between corporations offloading surplus assets, nonprofits that can use those assets, and the financial systems that reward reuse.

We focus on the underlying economic value of the assets

Our analysis presents commercial salvage across five defined levels of trade. By aligning asset acquisition and disposition with economic value, CFOs and Controllers can convert traditional sustainability metrics, such as percentage of waste diverted or pounds diverted, into actionable financial insights. This method allows organizations to measure the initial cost of assets in Year 1, evaluate their remaining economic value in Year 5, and calculate the precise dollar amount of material discarded. Additionally, this data supports the development of a functional secondary market by informing and helping create consistent supply and assisting other market participants to drive demand. These insights are critical to establishing a viable supply and demand curve, which remains absent in the current marketplace.

Primary Market Value—The price for the property purchased at full price on the primary market.

Wholesale Value—The price for the property purchased with a wholesale discount.

IRS Fair Market Value—This is defined by the IRS as Fair market value (FMV) is the price that property would sell for on the open market. It is the price that would be agreed on between a willing buyer and a willing seller, with neither being required to act, and both having reasonable knowledge of the relevant facts. If you put a restriction on the use of property you donate, the FMV must reflect that restriction.

Orderly Liquidation Value—This includes property that is sold in a sale with limited time to advertise and find a buyer, but with less time than Fair Market Value, with some degree of compulsion to sell.

Forced Liquidation Value—This value assumes a quick sale, with little to no exposure time and with a heavy compulsion to sell the property quickly.

Sample Deliverables from Projects and Key Insights

From one of our recent projects, which was a full decommission, donation for IRS FMV, and ESG reporting.

Primary Retail reflects the original acquisition or new retail price, totaling $5,340,310. This is the baseline value (100%) against which all other levels are compared.

Wholesale represents sales to buyers purchasing in bulk, often for resale or commercial use, typically at a discount while the goods remain new or unused. The wholesale value is $2,313,22, or 43% of the primary retail value, indicating a 57% drop in value when items move from individual retail to bulk wholesale sale. This was the original acquisition price for our clients.

Fair Market Value (FMV) is defined under IRC §1.170A-1(c)(2) as “the price at which the property would change hands between a willing buyer and a willing seller, neither being under any compulsion to buy or sell and both having reasonable knowledge of relevant facts.” FMV in this analysis is calculated at $856,300: 37% of the wholesale value. This level reflects the price at which the property would sell on the open secondary market, often with moderate wear and functional depreciation.

Orderly Liquidation Value is often the correct market in which to value commercial furniture, especially for property like cubicles and bulky built in cabinetry and millwork. Here, the total was $302,97, equal to 13% of wholesale.

Forced Liquidation Value represents the lowest recovery scenario—typically what would be obtained in a distress sale or auction environment, where time constraints or financial distress demand immediate conversion to cash. This level totals $177,513, or 8% of wholesale.

Our analysis shows that for items such as cubicles, large metal filing cabinets, and built-in office cabinetry and desk configurations, even when the property is in very good or excellent condition, the value on the secondary market is 8-13% of the original acquisition cost.

The cascading reductions across each level of trade underscore that the subject assets are highly depreciating in nature. For example, moving from retail to FMV alone results in an 84% value loss, and ultimately down to 97% lost value at forced liquidation. These drastic declines illustrate that the property loses significant economic value outside of its original intended sale environment and highlights the importance of market timing and conditions in maximizing recovery. Such depreciation patterns are consistent with rapidly obsolescing or niche-use assets, such as commercial furnishings, office fixtures, or specialized equipment with limited secondary market demand.

How our Model Works

Comprehensive Decommission Planning: TGMI and GM ESG work closely with a client’s chosen deconstruction or removal contractors from the start. Their team will coordinate environmentally-sound deconstruction projects to “ensure that they save as many components for reuse and recycling as possible,” rather than defaulting to disposal We can also recommend trusted deconstruction companies to clients. This involves upfront inventory assessments, setting aside time for donation pick-ups or resale, and managing logistics so that reuse is prioritized even on large, complex jobs. By being embedded in the project planning, they alleviate the pressure on clients and contractors to “just throw everything away” in a last-minute rush.
Valuation of Used Assets (Enabling Charitable Donations): A cornerstone of our service is providing IRS-qualified personal property appraisals for the furniture, fixtures, and equipment that a company wishes to donate. In the U.S., contributions of used property to qualified 501(c)(3) charities or public institutions can earn the donor tax deductions; but only if properly appraised at IRS defined Fair Market Value (FMV). Our specialists (including IRS Qualified Appraisers and our CEO as a practicing CPA of 25 years) determine an accurate FMV of everything from office cubicles to hotel casegoods. This ensures the donating company can confidently claim tax deductions based on what the items are actually worth on the secondary market. We emphasizes rigorous, compliant valuations to avoid inflated claims while still capturing the remaining economic value for the client’s benefit. By doing so, we transform what would have been a pure cost (paying to dispose of old furniture) into a financial incentive (a tax deduction for charitable giving).
Partnerships and Market Insight: Our team does not operate in a vacuum; we partner with other industry players to maximize reuse outcomes. For example, we have collaborated with Installnet’s EcoServ program, leveraging Installnet’s on-the-ground network of installers and warehouses across the U.S. and Canada. In this partnership, TGMI and GM ESG provided the valuation and strategic oversight, while EcoServ provided the physical removal and distribution channels for the used furniture. Together we quickly funneled large volumes of furniture to resale brokers, donation recipients, or recycling as appropriate, and backed it all with data and metrics. Our reports include market analyses of secondary asset trends and lifecycle insights so that clients understand how their assets fit into the reuse marketplace. We also assist companies and public accounting firms with ESG (environmental, social, governance) reporting, translating the furniture diversion into verified sustainability metrics for corporate reports.
Business and Tax Consulting with Secondary Retailers: A key challenge in expanding the reuse ecosystem is increasing participation in the secondary market by developing viable business models and proving the profitability of capturing and reselling surplus corporate assets. This is not a simple undertaking, as profit margins for manufacturing and selling new corporate furnishings remain high, while the secondary market, despite being around for over twenty years, is still in an early stage of development .
Our work includes consulting with both primary market participants and companies seeking investment to expand into the secondary space. We assist with valuations, the creation of investor prospectuses, market analysis, cash flow forecasting, and strategic growth planning. Importantly, we advise clients on tax incentives under both federal and state law. For example, companies may qualify for treatment under IRC Section 1202 for Qualified Small Business Stock (QSBS). U.S.-based companies that are not classified as Specified Service Trades or Businesses and remain under $50 million in assets may be eligible. Investors in these companies can potentially realize up to $10 million in capital gains without federal tax after holding the stock for five years.
In addition, companies operating in Qualified Opportunity Zones may attract investors through Opportunity Zone incentives and Qualified Opportunity Funds. For more information on these tax strategies, please refer to our affiliate firm, MAS LLC.
Expertise in Both Deconstruction and Tax: Uniquely, our team spans deconstruction experts, appraisers, tax and accounting professionals, ESG consultants, logistics management, and sustainability consultants. This cross-disciplinary knowledge is crucial. It means we can walk onto a corporate campus that is closing, identify everything from high-end boardroom furniture to modular wall systems that have reuse value, coordinate their removal in an orderly way, and provide the client with the proper documentation to claim (for instance) a non-cash charitable deduction. As we describe it, we use “deep understanding of the tax code to specialize in waste diversion,” marrying financial savvy with green practices. This approach addresses one of the urgent needs of the sustainable building industry, bridging the gap between demolition contractors and donation opportunities, while ensuring companies feel a tangible benefit for their sustainability efforts.
Cost Management: Through economies of scale and streamlined project execution, our bids for deconstruction and reuse often match or come in lower than traditional demolition and landfill disposal costs. In fact, time-tracked logistics data consistently show that breaking down furniture to fit into dumpsters is frequently more labor-intensive than removing and loading items for delivery to reuse recipients. As a result, our approach not only supports sustainability goals but can also provide a cost-neutral (or even cost-saving) alternative to conventional disposal methods.

Through strategies like these, we have carved out a model where every stakeholder wins: nonprofits receive quality used furnishings and materials; client companies fulfill sustainability goals and often recoup significant value; and needless waste is kept out of landfills. By proving that decommissioned furniture is not “junk” but rather assets value, we change the narrative around used office and hotel furniture.

It is worth noting that we operate across the entire US and in Canada (via partners), reflecting the broad geographic need for these services. We are part of a North American trend: similar firms in Canada (like Green Standards, which also tracks donation impact) and other U.S. programs show a growing infrastructure for reuse. Still, our mission’s particular focus is on the economic valuation model linked with reuse and sustainability metrics, which makes us unique, filling a niche, according to the CFOs and Controllers of our clients. By helping companies unlock tax savings, as well as present the true economic value of asset procurement and disposal, we hope to tilt the economics in favor of reuse over disposal.

The Benefits of a Thriving Secondary Market for Commercial Furniture

If more companies prioritized reuse, the benefits would be immense, not only environmentally, but also economically and socially. Building a functioning secondary market for used commercial furnishings creates value on multiple fronts:

Waste and Emissions Reduction: The most direct benefit is massive landfill diversion. Every ton of desks or hotel casegoods that is reused or recycled is a ton kept out of an overflowing landfill. This also means avoiding the pollution associated with disposal. Furniture in landfills can release methane (from decomposing wood/foam) and leach chemicals. Keeping furniture in use longer also delays the need to manufacture new products, which in turn reduces upstream environmental impacts. For instance, reusing office furniture reduces demand for virgin timber, metals and plastics, and avoids the considerable carbon emissions that would have been produced to manufacture new furniture. One source notes that diverting heavy, durable goods like furniture from landfill has a double benefit – it cuts disposal impacts and reduces new production impacts at the same time.
Cost Savings and Financial Incentives: Companies can actually save money by opting for reuse pathways. Avoided disposal costs are one factor (businesses spend up to 4% of their operational budgets on waste management, and throwing away less can trim these costs). More significantly, participants can gain financially: through tax deductions for donations (as discussed, with proper appraisals, firms can deduct the fair market value of donated assets—if they have adequate basis, are capital assets, and other taxpayer specific requirements), or even through revenue if some furniture is resold. In the hotel sector, instead of paying liquidators to haul items, some operators conduct on-site sales or auctions of used furnishings to recoup money and, as stated in the prior section, our bids on projects often are the same or less than traditional demolition. When the costs are more than traditional demolition, office building managers increasingly see that paying a bit more for sustainable decommissioning can be offset by value recovered from resale or avoided new purchases elsewhere. One recent case: an office dealer in Baltimore realized that “rather than hitting the easy button” and landfilling their old furniture, diverting everything via employee sales, donations, and recycling was “smart business”, aligning with their sustainability goals and benefiting the bottom line in the long run.
Social Impact and Community Goodwill: A flourishing secondhand market means that nonprofits, schools, and underserved communities gain access to quality equipment at low or no cost. The charitable aspect cannot be overstated. In the past decade, office furniture reuse programs have donated tens of millions of dollars worth of furniture and equipment to charities. For example, Green Standards and similar initiatives report donating $32 million worth of surplus assets to over 5,500 nonprofit groups by diverting 75,000 tons of furniture from landfill over ten years. That translates into real improvements for those organizations; imagine shelters outfitted with gently used hotel beds, or public schools furnished with corporate-donated desks and chairs. These donations free up budgets in nonprofits (as one charity recipient noted, every dollar not spent on office furniture is a dollar that can go to programs and services for the community). Companies that participate in such efforts also gain goodwill and strengthen their ESG credentials, which matters for brand reputation and stakeholder trust.
Market Growth and New Business Opportunities: As the supply of used commercial furniture becomes more consistently available, demand for it will rise, creating a virtuous cycle. Already, the second-hand furniture market is on a strong growth trajectory globally, one analysis projected the global market to roughly double from $40 billion in 2024 to $87 billion by 2034, making it one of the fastest-growing segments of the resale economy. While much of that is consumer home furniture resale, commercial reuse is a part of this trend. Entrepreneurs are taking note that furniture resale can be profitable, with typical secondhand furniture dealers seeing healthy profit margins on refurbished pieces. A vibrant secondary market means more jobs in refurbishment, resale, logistics, and online platforms that facilitate exchanges. It also spurs innovation, for instance, new digital marketplaces for surplus corporate assets or services that match donors with recipients (a bit like “dating apps” for office furniture and nonprofits). Ultimately, treating used furniture as a valuable commodity creates an economic incentive for more players to enter the arena, which in turn expands capacity to divert even more material from waste.
Industry Resilience and Circular Economy: A final benefit is more qualitative: building reuse pathways makes the office furniture industry more circular and resilient. When companies know they can easily remarket or donate their furniture at end-of-life, they may be more willing to invest in higher-quality, longer-lasting designs (because they know there is residual value). During times of supply chain disruptions or budget constraints, a strong secondhand market offers a safety valve, e.g. a business or hotel can procure good used furnishings quickly when new ones are backlogged or too expensive. We saw a glimpse of this during recent years when supply-chain issues caused long waits for new furniture; secondhand sources became a practical solution. In short, normalizing reuse makes the whole furniture ecosystem more efficient and less wasteful.

Given these wide-ranging benefits, it is clear that expanding the secondary market for commercial furnishings is a win-win strategy. The next question is: How can we actually make it happen on a larger scale? The answer lies in actions by companies and their partners to change how they procure, manage, and dispose of assets. By taking deliberate steps, organizations can significantly reduce their waste footprint and simultaneously fuel the engine of reuse.

How Companies Can Drive Reuse and Strengthen the Secondary Market

Businesses and institutions hold the key to bolstering the secondary market through the choices they make in procurement, asset management, and end-of-life handling. Here are several strategies and best practices for companies looking to reduce their furniture waste and make a positive impact:

Adopt Sustainable Procurement Policies: When buying furniture or interior building materials, consider the full lifecycle. Opt for durable, high-quality items with timeless design that will retain value and functionality for many years. Favor modular systems (like demountable walls or interchangeable components) that can be reconfigured or relocated, rather than custom-built installations that end up as trash. Some companies are now choosing remanufactured or refurbished office furniture for their needs – for example, purchasing remanufactured workstations from a specialized firm, which not only costs less but also supports the reuse industry. By demanding products that have end-of-life solutions (such as those from manufacturers offering take-back or buy-back programs), companies send a signal to the market and furniture makers that reuse matters.
Track and Manage Assets Proactively: A lot of furniture waste happens simply because organizations lose track of what they have. Implement an asset management system for furniture, fixtures, and equipment. Keep an inventory of furniture across your locations, including age and condition. This makes it easier to reuse internally; e.g. transfer excess desks from one office to furnish another location that is expanding, instead of buying new. It also helps when it’s time to decommission a site: you can identify which items have resale value or could be donated. Some companies even create an internal “swap shop” for office furniture so that when teams need items they check the internal surplus stock first. Good maintenance practices (cleaning, repairing minor issues) will extend the life of furniture and preserve its secondhand value.
Plan for Decommissioning Well in Advance: One lesson from experts like our team and Installnet is that time is your friend when trying to avoid waste. As soon as a relocation or renovation is on the horizon, start planning for what to do with the current furniture. Early planning allows you to engage with organizations that can take the items. Reach out to a specialized decommissioning service or nonprofit network and schedule pickups or sales events before the last minute. This avoids the scenario of scrambling on move-out day and defaulting to dumpsters. Successful projects have shown that even tens of thousands of items can be redistributed within weeks if coordination is in place. If your company is large, consider a master agreement with a reuse partner (like those “cottage industry” firms) to automatically handle any office closure or refit sustainably.
Leverage Donation and Tax Benefits: For items that you cannot or do not wish to sell, donation is a highly effective route, provided there is basis in the assets (they have not been fully depreciated) and qualify for capital gain treatment. Establish relationships with charities, schools, or material reuse organizations in your region. Many cities have material exchanges or nonprofits that facilitate large donations (for example, New York City’s WasteMatch program has diverted over 1 million tons of materials by linking businesses with nonprofits in need ). Work with qualified appraisers to properly document the fair market value of donated furnishings; the tax deductions may sometimes offset the costs of a sustainable decommission. As noted earlier, hotels and companies that donate can often get a tax receipt and save on hauling fees at the same time. Make sure to communicate these benefits internally as well, so that finance departments understand the economic value of reuse initiatives.
Engage Employees and Stakeholders: Often, sustainability initiatives succeed when employees are on board. Involve your facilities teams, CSR committees, and even general staff in the process of reuse. For instance, you might allow employees to claim certain gently-used items for their home or remote offices (reducing waste and rewarding staff). Or encourage volunteerism in the donation process. Some companies invite employees to help identify local schools or charities that could use the furniture, creating a sense of purpose and pride. As one executive noted, such projects can boost employee engagement and culture, because people feel “a real connection to something great” when they help give office items a second life. Highlighting the positive stories (like showing photos of the desks you donated now being used in a community center) can build momentum and support for future efforts.
Buy or Sell on the Secondary Market: To truly bolster the market, companies should participate on both the supply and demand sides. When appropriate, consider purchasing used or refurbished furniture for your operations. This could be through auction sites, resale dealers, or nonprofit outlets. Not every piece needs to be brand-new, especially for back-of-house or temporary needs. By being a customer of the secondary market, you increase demand and thus the viability for others to sell. Conversely, when you have surplus, don’t assume it has no value – there are many channels to sell used office furniture (online marketplaces, furniture liquidators who specialize in resale, etc.). Even getting a modest return by selling items at 25% of new cost is better than paying to dispose of them. And that consistent supply of used inventory into the marketplace will attract more entrepreneurs to enter the space, creating a wider array of resale options for everyone. The more that buyers know they can find good used furnishings regularly, the more they will check those channels first – stimulating a self-reinforcing cycle of supply and demand.
Refurbishment: Part of the growth of the secondary market involves the expansion of refurbishment companies. If chairs are donated or sold to a professional refurbisher, they can be stored with similar items and later restored with matching upholstery to create coordinated sets for resale. For example, purchasing a new conference table and chairs on the wholesale market may cost $25,000. A refurbished set using pre-owned pieces, restored to like-new condition with updated upholstery, might sell for around $12,000. The buyer saves $13,000 while the refurbishment company earns a profit based on the difference between its acquisition cost, which is sometimes zero in the case of donations, and the final sale price after covering its refurbishment expenses or Cost of Sales.
Measure and Report Outcomes: Finally, treat furniture reuse as a key part of your sustainability metrics. Track how many tons of furniture you divert, how many items find new homes, and the emissions or resources saved as a result. Many service providers will help calculate these. Reporting these successes in your annual sustainability reports or ESG disclosures not only provides transparency but also helps build the business case internally year after year. It shows leadership and stakeholders that the company’s investments in circular practices have tangible results (e.g., “Last year, we diverted 50 tons of furniture from landfill, donated $100,000 worth of goods to local schools, and saved X in disposal costs”). This kind of accounting can secure ongoing support and even budget for future reuse initiatives.

By implementing strategies like the above, companies become the engine that drives the secondary market. Every office move or hotel renovation handled through reuse channels is additional consistent supply injected into the market ecosystem, which in turn drives up demand as more end-users come to rely on secondhand sources. Over time, what might start as a corporate social responsibility effort can evolve into standard operating procedure – and even a profit center – as the secondary market matures.

Concluding Thoughts

The secondary market for used commercial furniture and equipment represents a significant opportunity to turn a waste problem into a profitable sustainability solution. Today’s reality is that millions of tons of office desks, hotel casegoods, and building materials are still dumped each year; a sign of how much room there is for improvement. Traditional decommissioning practices have barely scratched the surface in addressing this issue, with most companies making only incremental progress (if any) in diverting furniture waste. However, we attempt to illuminate a better path: one where businesses plan for reuse, capture value from their surplus assets, and channel those goods to where they are needed most.

The key insight is that corporate participation is essential to scale up the secondary market. When organizations consistently choose to reuse, donate, or resell their furnishings, they provide the steady supply that can fuel a vibrant marketplace. With that supply comes the incentive for more brokers, refurbishers, and nonprofits to get involved, creating a larger network that makes reuse easier and more normalized. In turn, a stronger market assures companies that when their next remodel comes, there will be viable, even profitable, outlets for their old assets, breaking the cycle of “dump and replace.” It is a positive feedback loop: more supply enables more demand, and more demand (buyers for used goods) encourages more suppliers (sellers and service providers) to step in.

In practical terms, companies can lead by example: procure thoughtfully, manage assets wisely, and partner with experts to handle decommissions responsibly. Whether it is an office tower in the U.S. or a hotel chain with properties in the U.S. and Canada, every organization can integrate these practices. The result will be fewer dumpsters filled with desks and headboards, and more thriving exchanges where one business’s surplus becomes another’s resource.

The journey to a circular economy for commercial furniture is just beginning, and admittedly, the industry has a lot of catching up to do. But the successes so far, from major corporate moves that sent zero furniture to landfill, to industry programs diverting tens of millions of pounds of material to good uses, show that additional progress is possible. By embracing the approaches outlined above, companies will not just be reducing waste as a cost or compliance issue; they will be actively bolstering a secondary market that yields environmental benefits, economic returns, and social good. In the end, driving up demand for reused commercial furnishings through consistent supply is not just about profitability (though that will come); it is about redefining waste as value and ensuring that our workspace and hospitality assets live full, productive lives before we finally say goodbye. With commitment and collaboration, the days of “throwaway” office furniture can be numbered, and a new era of reuse and resilience can take its place. Our team is excited to continue being part of the solution.

Sources:

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2. “The Hidden Waste Stream: How Much Office Furniture Goes to Landfills Annually?” Davies Office Blog, June 4, 2021. daviesoffice.com

3. Andy Peters, “How Office Furniture Recyclers Divert a Growing Pile From Landfills.” CoStar News, July 31, 2023. costar.com, costar.com

4. Savannah Nguyen, “Examining The Future Of Furniture Waste Amidst Changing Office Environments.” Michaels Global Trading Blog, May 29, 2024. michaelsglobaltrading.com, michaelsglobaltrading.com

5. Zara Johnson, “One Hotel’s Trash Is Another One’s Treasure: How to Discard Old Furniture During a Renovation.” Green Lodging News – Guest Column, Oct. 22, 2018. greenlodgingnews.com, greenlodgingnews.com

6. “WHAT WE DO – The Green Mission Inc.” TheGreenMissionInc.com – Services page, 2025. thegreenmissioninc.com, thegreenmissioninc.com

7. The Green Mission Inc., IRS Qualified Personal Property Appraisals (company overview), 2025. thegreenmissioninc.com, thegreenmissioninc.com

8. Tony Case, “As hybrid offices look to offload unused furniture, HR has a hand in eco-friendly solutions.” Worklife (Digiday Media), Oct. 4, 2024. worklife.news, worklife.news

9. Great Forest Sustainability Solutions, “When Hotels Redecorate, What Happens To Hundreds Of Old Items?” Great Forest Blog, July 15, 2015. greatforest.com

10. Jennifer Ortakales Dawkins, “Furniture resale is booming and could be the next $16.6 billion growth category for entrepreneurs.” Business Insider, Nov. 11, 2021. businessinsider.com, businessinsider.com

11. MAS LLC, Understanding Qualified Small Business Stock (QSBS): Tax Requirements, Limitations, and Long-Term Benefits. May 2^nd, 2025. https://marschalltax.com/2025/05/02/understanding-qualified-small-business-stock-qsbs-tax-requirements-limitations-and-long-term-benefits/

GM ESG: Reducing Commercial Furniture Waste and Bolstering the Secondary Marketfor Used Furnishings

Green Mission ESG Solutions: A Smarter Approach to Sustainable Waste Solutions

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