How do you decommission 190,000 square feet of office space under a time constraint and move into a new building without disrupting work efficiency? A lot of planning and teamwork.
When POWER Engineers started designing their new building in Meridian, their Operations Facilities team began the gargantuan task of planning for moving personnel and equipment. Their mission was to move employees from their 120,000 square foot Cedar Point office into their 70,000 square foot Diamond Point office, then into their brand-new building over roughly six months. On top of that, they needed to decommission their old furniture as sustainably as possible. So, they decided to divide and conquer. While POWER focused on moving its people, Create Spaces searched for ways to decommission the furniture responsibly.
Operations Facilities Regional Manager Rob Womble and his team spent countless hours talking with POWER managers to determine which groups needed space in the smaller Diamond Point office. Those who could work from home did so. The others worked from hotelling stations and temporary seats the Facilities team prepared for them.
Once the contractor completed a few floors of the new building, Rob’s team started moving employees. “We moved in over a three-month period in three phases. In the first phase we received the second and third floors. Next, we got the fourth, and finally the fifth. It was a slow progression.” Like they did between their old offices, they created spaces for employees to work if their floor wasn’t ready yet.
“This move was the largest undertaking our team has ever done. I was pleasantly surprised at how smooth it went. Ultimately, there was a lot of planning and valuable input from my team. I’m extremely proud of everybody, not just the core team, but the outer teams all the way down to the individual employees.”
Rob Womble
As the POWER Facilities team cared for their people, the Create Spaces team identified buyers, recyclers, and non-profits to take 87% of the furniture left behind. In the end, POWER implemented a sustainable decommissioning of their buildings and helped support twenty local businesses and non-profits. One such organization close to Rob’s heart was the Idaho Food Bank. “POWER has supported the food bank throughout the years. I think they’re a great organization and was happy to support them in this way.”
POWER Engineer’s purpose is “Do Good, Have Fun, Build Success.” Through extensive planning and prioritizing sustainability, POWER Engineers successfully moved their team and lived their values. They are an inspiring example of how to take a complicated situation, have some fun solving problems, do good in their community, and build success for themselves and others around them.
POWER Engineers helped support 20 local non-profits, organizations, and businesses:
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