Environmental Stewardship in Office Closing

2. Meeting Deadlines

The last thing you want is to be in the position of violating your lease because you couldn't get out in time. The task of developing a realistic timeline to get things done presents a problem because many of the tasks that are required for success are out of your control. You have to rely on contractors, technicians, and on site personnel for assistance and manage all of their agendas which may or may not coincide with your goals. This leads to the next challenge.

3. Developing an Effective Closure Team

A typical closure team consists of various elements. Internal members of the team include on-site personnel (who may be getting laid off and therefore may not be motivated to be very helpful) and other stakeholders within the organization like IT or real estate management. External members include vendors like electricians, furniture movers, technicians, recyclers, etc. Your ability to get things done where you may have little or no authority will be tested here.

4. Building Management/Planning

Each building presents its own combination of unique requirements. You will be required to get approvals from a property management office and comply with the buildings operating parameters like elevator access hours, trash removal rules, moving policies, area access restrictions, etc. Certificates of insurance need to be provided to meet the building owners specifications. What happens when the building can only be accessed on nights or weekends soothe remaining tenants are not disrupted? If you can find the people you need that are willing to do work off hours the project costs will undoubtedly go up.

5. Trash Removal

When you're closing an office, removing trash is a lot more complex than taking out the garbage.

Electronics may be classified as Universal Waste and subject to hazardous waste prosecution if violations occur. Batteries, Lighting, and computer equipment all represent possible problems. See EPA ruling discussion on CRTs http://www.epa.gov/fedrgstr/EPA-WASTE/2006/July/Day-28/f6490.htm for more insight. How will you get rid of this material safely and securely with the documentation to support your efforts? The sheer volume of paper, junk, and equipment can present a problem too. Even identifying the equipment that has value can be difficult. Sometimes you just don't know what it is that you're looking at. Finding the people and vendors that can help you may not be that easy.

6. Public Relations (Sensitivity of a "closure" with the company employees/project members)

If the office is getting closed, chances are that the people that are left will have morale problems. The morale problems can manifest themselves in various ways, none of them are good. It can very difficult to get support and cooperation especially when you're not physically there.

7. Technical knowledge of equipment (Telco/Data)

The technical knowledge to decommission all the equipment properly (Telco, IT, lab equipment, rectifiers, batteries, etc.) may be something that you do not possess or may not be readily accessible.

8. Packing & Shipping of equipment & assets

The quality of the packing and moving process is very important to note because it can have a dramatic impact on the overall success and cost of the project. Nothing is worse than having items damaged in shipment because they were not packed and handled properly. This can be especially critical with Telco and IT gear.

9. Clean Up

Ensuring that the office is vacated and left in acceptable condition at lease expiration or closure is usually a tedious and dirty job and sometimes a very difficult to accomplish because of a tight schedule. Some of the tasks you may be faced with are removing cabling from the ceilings, repairing sheet rock, and making sure vendor owned machines are gone.

10. Cost Control

An office closure can be very expensive if not managed properly. Even under the best circumstances things go wrong. Vendors don't show up, elevators break, things get lost or stolen, and everything seems to take longer than expected. Part of the problem is that it is very difficult to estimate the scope of the job. For instance, you have to move a large copier out of the building but it won't fit through the door because the walls were built after the copier was in place.