INDUSTRY
Insurance
COMPANY SIZE
92,000+
HEADQUARTERS
Paris, France
Preparing to relocate their regional offices in New York City’s financial district, AXA XL, the specialty risk division of global insurer AXA, determined there would be multiple floors worth of quality surplus furniture, equipment, and supplies.
AXA XL partnered with Green Standards to arrange charitable donations, resale, and specialized recycling to keep these items out of landfills while helping the community.
LANDFILL DIVERSION RATE (122.6 TONS)
0%
IN-KIND DONATIONS
$0
NON-PROFIT BENEFICIARIES
0
EMPLOYEES’ WORTH OF FURNITURE
0+
SQUARE FEET OF OFFICES
0+
METRIC TONS OF CO2e EMISSIONS AVOIDED
0
Challenge
While planning the New York office move in 2022, AXA XL’s corporate real estate and workplace teams recognized that liquidating multiple floors of used office furniture would result in an unknown amount of furniture waste. AXA XL understood that coordinating a large-scale donation initiative on its own could come with sizable vendor and storage costs, unique project risks, and potential legal liability. The potential for so much waste and the lack of transparency typical of liquidation services urged them to consider a better approach.
AXA XL leadership decided that its excess furniture and equipment provided a unique opportunity to further its industry-leading corporate responsibility goals, as well as to engage and assist non-profit organizations and schools serving in its communities.
“Recognizing the potential for significant furniture waste, we partnered with Green Standards to ensure that our office assets were repurposed and donated to local community organizations.”
Jerome Itty
Chief Operating Officer, Americas
AXA XL
Solution
Employing the principles of a circular workplace, Green Standards would provide AXA XL with a streamlined approach to donating its excess office assets to community organizations local to its headquarters. Green Standards takes responsibility for the entire process; from onboarding and managing commercial movers, to engaging eligible local non-profits, coordinating, and documenting asset delivery, and providing environmental and community impact reporting.
Result
Through Green Standards’ program, AXA XL diverted 100% of its furniture, fixtures, equipment from landfill while making in-kind donations worth $39,580 to 7 NYC non-profits and schools including City Tech, High School for Environmental Studies, and Materials for The Arts.
Asset Distribution
Resale
Donation
Recycling
Relocation
Landfill
Beneficiary Spotlight
“We’re truly appreciative of everyone who came in to support and helped us with the furniture. We received dozens of items from Green Standards and AXA XL. Tables, desks, stools, large screen TVs, all things that will be truly amazing for this space. Without these donations, we wouldn’t have the funding necessary to create our dream space.”
Jose Diaz, Director of Instructional Technology
City Tech
In the Media
“Partnering with Green Standards allowed us to focus on our core business, and also gave us the level of comfort that all of the products in our old space were going to be reused.”
Billy Lechert
Head of Workplace, Americas
AXA XL
