Community Foundation for Nantucket, Remain and Boston Building Resources Partner for Sustainable Workspace Exchange
The Community Foundation for Nantucket (CFN), Remain and Boston Building Resources (BBR) have joined forces to deliver nearly 40 pieces of high-quality office furniture to nonprofit organizations across the island. This initiative reflects a shared commitment between the organizations to environmental stewardship and strengthening the island’s salvage and reuse efforts.
The project is a practical example of circular economy principles in action—repurposing durable, gently used office furnishings to extend their useful life while reducing waste. These items, sourced from a decommissioned Boston-area office, were trucked to Nantucket on April 18 and distributed to organizations serving the island community, including:
- The Warming Place
- Fairwinds
- Nantucket Boys and Girls Club
- Nantucket Book Foundation
- Maria Mitchell Association
- Nantucket Community Sailing
- Tuckernuck Land Trust
- Nantucket Resource Partnership
- Nantucket Land & Water Council
- Landmark House
- Nantucket Center for Elder Affairs
- Nantucket Community School
“This is a great example of how collaboration and sustainability can go hand in hand,” said Sunny Daily, executive director of the Community Foundation for Nantucket. “We’re grateful to Remain for bringing this opportunity to us to help the island’s nonprofits.”
The initiative builds upon Remain’s long-standing efforts in salvage and reuse—an integral part of the organization’s broader mission to reduce construction and demolition waste on Nantucket. For more than a decade, Remain has championed better waste management across the island, supporting initiatives that address everything from single-use plastic reduction to more efficient and equitable systems for waste collection and disposal. By advancing local reuse practices and circular material flows, Remain works to preserve valuable resources, ease the cost burden of materials and foster more resilient, affordable and sustainable development on Nantucket. Reuse, in particular, has remained central to Remain’s approach—encouraging both individuals and institutions to rethink waste not as an endpoint, but as a potential resource within a thriving circular economy.
“Remain is always looking for ways to rethink how resources can be reused in order to eliminate waste and lessen the carbon impact,” said Cecil Barron Jensen, executive director of Remain. “By supporting this effort with a grant program, local nonprofits can furnish functional, inspiring work environments with high-quality furniture from the secondhand market. It’s a win for sustainability and for the community.”
The furnishings themselves are being delivered by Boston Building Resources, a nonprofit consumer co-op and reuse center based in Boston, Mass. BBR is dedicated to reclaiming salvaged and donated building materials and making them accessible to individuals and communities, reducing environmental impact while supporting meaningful reuse.
“It’s rewarding to see items that might otherwise go to waste instead find new life on Nantucket,” said Kord Jablonski, of Boston Building Resources. “For more than thirty years, BBR has been working to divert useful items from the waste stream to grow the circular economy and build stronger communities. We are extremely excited to have such enthusiastic reuse partners on Nantucket.”
By uniting around shared values—sustainability, community resilience and creative reuse—this partnership shows how resourceful, mission-driven collaboration can meet both environmental and social needs, on Nantucket and beyond.