Sharing Your Office Space for the Environment

Thoreau Center for Sustainability San Francisco is a 150,000 square-foot nonprofit center located in the historic Presidio. Made up of 12 buildings, the sustainable facility houses more than 60 nonprofits.

From the outside, the Thoreau Center for Sustainability in San Francisco looks like just another office building.

Few would guess the amount of thought and detail that went into choosing the center’s construction materials, which range from recycled windshield glass to natural fibers like cellulose and cotton.

The California center also uses sustainably harvested EcoPanels from Architectural Forest Enterprises and maple veneer from the Menominee Tribe, among other recycled supplies.

Tides, an organization that partners with activists, companies and philanthropists to promote sustainable living, operates Thoreau Centers in San Francisco and New York. Both centers house a community of nonprofit organizations, enabling these groups to share eco-friendly office space along with ideas, meeting facilities and other services.

In New York, around seven agencies share the available office space in the center, which represents an 85.5 percent savings in cost and energy. Likewise in San Francisco, office space is never leased out to individuals, so organizations are able to take full advantage of sharing high energy costs.

While the concept of shared office space is far from revolutionary, what sets apart the Thoreau Centers is their audience, a group that consists primarily of nonprofits and startup organizations looking to ignite social change themselves.

These companies often have the most amount of trouble finding an affordable office space in which to work, especially in light of government cutbacks and low funding.

“Thoreau Centers seem to be a good model to share with other organizations seeking to create their own centers in their communities,” says Tides Program Manager Bruce DeMartini. ”So Tides created a membership organization called The Nonprofit Centers Network, which connects hundreds of members across the country through training, technical assistance, consulting, education resources and networking events.”

Aside from the Thoreau Centers, Tides operates Multi-Tenant Nonprofit Centers (MTNCs) that offer organizations the unique opportunity of collaborating with other groups and sharing costs to back collective missions.

Through these centers, nonprofits are able to support one another and host events that enhance their visibility within the community. Thanks to Tides Shared Spaces, hundreds of MTNCs are now in operation around the country.

“We’ve created a Green Team with members from each tenant organization,” DeMartini adds. ”This, of course, helps communicate the benefits of sustaining a green facilities management practice with a bottom line that also benefits the tenants. The tenants share transportation, recycling practices and energy savings programs. Through our Green Team activities, we hope our members will become active advocates for improved sustainable practices in their office spaces and throughout the Thoreau Center community.”

Tides Shared Spaces is currently working towards adapting the shared spaces model for a larger group of diverse companies.

“Shared spaces should fit most models,” says DeMartini. “That’s a goal we hope to achieve as we share knowledge through a vast network of architects, real estate developers, foundations and other nonprofit professionals.”

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