Reducing office space can be a complicated process, but it doesn’t have to be

As Twitter rapidly cut its office space, it tried to turn its office decor into memorabilia, auctioning off a neon bird for a cool $17,000, an espresso machine that retails for $10,000, and high-end rocking chairs earlier this month.

But closing an office involves more than offloading furniture and kitchen appliances; it’s a logistical process, involving HR leaders and their colleagues in IT, real estate, and executive leadership.

As US companies double down on remote and hybrid work, with 52% planning to reduce their office space within the next three years according to data from commercial real estate firm CBRE, sources told HR Brew that people leaders will have to keep their employees informed along the way—even when it comes to how they’re taking out the trash.

Where does the stuff go? Closing an office isn’t like cleaning out your parents’ basement, but it can feel just as daunting for those in charge of the process. Getting rid of office supplies is more complicated than listing random items on Facebook Marketplace and hoping someone makes an offer. And it’s not just furniture, either—everything from desks to Post-its needs to go somewhere.

Offices account for around 35–45% of the millions of tons of municipal solid waste (MSW) that ends up in landfill each year, according to the US Environmental Protection Agency. However, businesses like Reseat, Anew, and Green Standards offer companies an alternative.

Trevor Langdon, the CEO of Green Standards, a company that helps companies ethically offload their office furniture, told HR Brew that companies are rethinking the way they downsize as they consider how their business decisions impact the environment—and their employees become more cognizant of their environmental practices. Instead of just sending everything to landfill, Langdon said companies like his help businesses donate and resell their unwanted materials to local organizations.

“[Employees] are seeing their employers make these big, lofty net-zero pledges,” he said, “and they notice when their company does that on the one hand, and then throws all the furniture in the landfill on the other.”

To help facilitate employee messaging, Green Standards provides its clients with an environmental impact report that shows the effects of keeping their office supplies out of landfills.

HR’s role. While the majority of this job rarely (if ever) falls to HR, the logistics and messaging may be left to a people pro. Langdon said that facilities managers used to be responsible for office closings. As companies have looked at the office in a more holistic way, this has changed. “That’s not a facilities manager making those decisions, that’s their head or senior VP of global real estate, with key players from HR, with key players from sustainability, and there’s a whole corporate communications angle to it,” he explained.

One company that took this multi-department approach was Canadian creative agency Fuse Create. In 2021, it downsized from 100 desks on three floors in an office, to eight desks in a two-bedroom condo set up for collaborative work. Melissa Beadow, Fuse Create’s HR director, told us that she was tasked with communication and coordination. The task was just too big to handle on her own, so Fuse brought in a consultant to handle the logistics.

The consultant figured out where the office supplies and furniture would go post-closure, allowing Beadow to focus on employee communication and coordination.

“Communication is key,” she said. “Constantly updating your staff, asking their advice, and working together, because we wouldn’t have been able to do it without the executive team [and] our IT department.”

Bottom line. An office reduction is about much more than “stuff.” It’s about having a cohesive plan for employees, and keeping the company from increasing its carbon footprint. HR plays an important role.—KP

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