Salvaged materials

The path to a cleaner, healthier future begins with the small decisions we make every day. That’s why we’re constantly looking for ways to have a positive environmental impact and be even more responsible in our use of energy, water, and other natural resources. At Gradient Canopy, it’s why we decided to create the building with circular design principles in mind, which helps decrease the demand for finite natural resources. Circular design aims to keep materials in use as long as possible, which is why we incorporated a host of salvaged and reclaimed materials into the building.

At Gradient Canopy, we installed over 30 products from salvaged sources throughout the building. These include reclaimed wood, bike racks, lockers, carpet and tiles that would have otherwise gone to landfill. Including salvaged materials on this scale helped the building attain the International Living Future Institute (ILFI) Living Building Challenge (LBC) Materials Petal certification, which aims to help create a materials economy that is non-toxic, ecologically restorative and transparent.

Because of the size of the building, we had to develop several strategies to acquire reclaimed materials on a scale that made sense. For example, sourcing things like reclaimed tiles or carpet was tricky because the design called for so much of it, and it needed to be consistent in dimensions, color and materiality throughout.

A key strategy we utilized was reusing items from our own stock of warehoused materials at Google. This means we looked at our own attic stock, including excess new material that went unused on previous projects, and items that had been removed from buildings before demolition. In looking at what we already had, we were able to incorporate salvaged carpet tile, bike racks, ceramic tiles and acoustic ceiling tiles.

Another way we incorporated salvaged materials was using reclaimed wood from various local sources. For example, we used wood removed during construction to craft benches that are sprinkled throughout the building. We also looked to local vendors to supply salvaged wood, which were used for things like wall paneling in bike storage areas and flooring in the Google Store.

Another part of our circular design goals at Gradient Canopy had to do with implementing ambitious construction waste goals to avoid sending materials to landfill whenever possible. As of August 2023, we diverted more than 90% of construction waste from landfills, and a closed-loop wallboard initiative allowed us to recycle over 550,000 pounds of drywall waste from 2020 to 2022.

We also worked with Rheaply , a climate tech company that created an online exchange for building products and other resources in the Bay Area. The Bay Area Reuse Marketplace allows businesses in the region to access surplus and reclaimed resources such as furniture, fixtures, equipment and other building materials at cost-effective rates. Not only are we set up to put excess materials purchased from Gradient Canopy into the Rheaply network, but we are also working with Rheaply to scale our process of internal materials reuse at Google. Rather than a cumbersome process of individual project teams finding materials and coordinating timeline, we are finding new ways to streamline our process for reuse and make circularity the norm.