ANEW and Verdical Group: Partnering to Do What's Wight With What's Left
By Sofia Siegel
ANEW has bolstered non-profit organizations and transformed lives since 2005, doing so with a number of corporate client partners. Since 2014 ANEW has worked closely with Verdical Group, a full service green building consulting firm based in Los Angeles. Verdical Group provides ANEW with project management and LEED services nationally, covering projects that range in size from a few chairs and desks delivered to a local non-profit, to multi-phase multi-million pound diversion projects that span more than two years.
In the spring of 2014, ANEW was selected by PIMCO to decommission their corporate headquarters in Newport Beach, CA. In just four weeks ANEW was able to steward 14 floors of furniture (3,000+ items) to more than 40 local non-profit organizations. The stewardship resulted in over 865,000 pounds of furniture, fixtures and equipment being diverted from landfill. This diversion strengthened communities across the Southland by allowing non-profits to focus their limited resources on program work rather than overhead. Verdical Group tracked non-profit outreach, finalized the complex metrics associated with a project of this scale, and pursued LEED Certification through the weight diverted from landfill. Diana Chen of Verdical Group led the effort for PIMCO to attain the Innovation & Design Credit for their Existing Building Operations + Management (EBOM) Certification; the project received a rating of LEED Gold. The multi-faceted successes of this project can be seen in further detail in this short video here.
From Left to Right: ANEW’s Nicky Kaplan, Ron Burkhardt, Rose Tourje
(Founder + President), Rock Macke, Glenn Sparks; and Verdical Group’s
Sofia Siegel, Diana Chen and Drew Shula (Founder & Principal)
In the spring of 2015, Sofia Siegel of Verdical Group identified and coordinated with 11 non-profit organizations, mostly based in the Bay Area, to donate almost 16,000 pounds of medical equipment and office furniture from the Kaiser Permanente Oakland (CA) Medical Center. World Vision, a long-time partner of ANEW, was able to steward a full trailer of valuable medical equipment, including: infant cribs; IV poles; patient beds; and wheelchairs, to a new health clinic in Zambia. Without the donation and stewardship, these items would have been too expensive for the Zambian clinic to purchase. The other recipient organizations provide health care and support to low income families and children in the East Bay; aftercare and community needs through YMCA programs; and urban farming programs that improve the human and environmental health of communities. This short video provides an overview of the project and its benefits to the communities. The Kaiser Permanente Oakland/ANEW project diverted over 674,000 pounds from landfill through recycling and donation; thousands of people were able to realize the benefits of access to improved healthcare.
Upon being selected to help meet their 95% Landfill Reduction by 2020 goal, ANEW worked with DirecTV for nearly two years, January 2013 – December 2014, to decommission their corporate headquarters in El Segundo, CA. The project ultimately yielded over 1.8 million pounds of furniture diverted from landfill through an integrated strategy of Resale, Repurpose, Recycle and Energy-from-Waste (EfW). EfW, pursued in coordination with Covanta Energy in nearby Long Beach, was essential in achieving the 95% landfill reduction goal. The donated items from this project reached 30 Los Angeles-based non-profits, with two-thirds of those serving inner-city schools and education-based programs, a priority for DirecTV’s community engagement. Students, teachers and administrators were provided proper desks and chairs, tables and cabinets, bookcases and myriad other supplies essential to the education process. With guidance from ANEW, Verdical Group managed, tracked and aggregated two years of removal phases and metrics to complete the largest ANEW project to date.
These are some of the larger projects that ANEW and Verdical Group have coordinated together, but equally important are the ongoing smaller projects that strengthen non-profits in communities nationwide. Diana Chen manages Full Circle, the exclusive resource recovery program created by Knoll and ANEW, which diverted more than 2.2 million pounds of furniture from landfill in 2014. Sofia Siegel manages the ANEW recipient outreach for many projects across the U.S., most recently coordinating recipients for longtime ANEW client Land O’ Lakes and sponsor/partner Humanscale.
ANEW is inspired to work with those like Verdical Group who share its common interests. Together we improve lives, mitigate climate change and strengthen communities one project at a time.
