Sustainably Built: UPLIFT Desk Repeats as Austin's Environmental Champion
For the second consecutive year, UPLIFT Desk has been named the Environmental Champion at the 2025 Greater Austin Business Awards.
The Environmental Champion award recognizes businesses that demonstrate exceptional environmental practices and sustainable operations across the Greater Austin region.
What Does Two Years Mean to Us?
Seeing our team's dedication to our environmental impact recognized on stage for the second year is a testament to our mission and core values as a business founded in Austin. The Environmental Champion award honors companies that reduce their environmental impact with mindful usage of resources, energy, water, waste, and reducing pollution, while creating a positive impact for the environment and our community. This year's competition included incredible nominees from diverse industries, all demonstrating leadership in sustainability. We are humbled to be selected and recognized for this award.
Receiving this recognition two years in a row is an achievement for our entire UPLIFT Desk team. From the engineers who design our products to the warehouse staff who manage our logistics, this recognition is proof that our mission to deliver customer value and reduce our environmental footprint is working.
Our Impact: Initiatives Driven by Commitment
Our environmental program centers on initiatives that create a lasting, measurable impact both locally and nationally. We believe sustainability requires action at scale:
Reforestation Commitment: Through our partnership with the National Forest Foundation, we've made a long-term promise to the planet: we plant five trees for every solid wood desktop sold. As of early 2025, we've planted more than 405,000 trees in U.S. National Forests! This directly supports reforestation efforts, carbon capture, and biodiversity restoration across the country, representing one of the largest commitments by a business in our industry.
Solar-Powered Operations: Our Austin facilities operate entirely on solar power. This wasn't just a business decision; it was a commitment to local energy independence. Solar panels on the rooftops of our office spaces and warehouses generate more electricity than our operations consume. To date, these systems have produced over 4.17 gigawatt-hours of renewable energy, generating over a megawatt of clean electricity to power everything from our office spaces to the electric forklifts in our fulfillment center. We even designed the solar panels to spell "UPLIFT Desk!"
Waste Reduction at Scale: In 2024, our recycling program diverted 132 tons of material from landfills, an increase of more than 8,500 pounds over the previous year. This commitment to reducing waste at the source meant the equivalent of 18 trailer loads of cardboard, shrink wrap, and foam were recycled rather than sent to landfills.
Designing Desks for a Healthier Planet
At UPLIFT Desk, we believe you shouldn't have to choose between a beautiful, premium desk or a sustainable one. Our team integrates environmental considerations into every product decision to ensure your workspace helps the planet, too.
Bamboo: Our bamboo desktops utilize one of the most sustainable materials available. Bamboo can grow more than one inch per hour during peak season and regenerates naturally from its root system after harvesting, requiring no replanting and far less water than traditional crops or trees.
Rubberwood: Our rubberwood desktops give a productive second life to trees originally grown for natural rubber latex production. After 25 to 30 years, when latex production declines, these trees are repurposed as lumber, instead of being discarded, reducing waste and deforestation pressure.
Eco Desktops: We manufacture our eco desktops locally from 100% recycled, FSC-certified materials. They are produced without edging strips, backer boards, glues, or chemical solvents, resulting in one of the lowest carbon footprints in the office furniture industry while remaining fully recyclable at end of life. Focusing on clean materials is key to our mission: Work better. Live healthier.
Thank You for Recognizing Us!
We are incredibly grateful for this recognition from the Greater Austin Chamber. More importantly, we are proud of our team, our customers, and our partners who make this commitment to the environment possible every single day.
Our team takes pride in contributing to a business that prioritizes long-term responsibility alongside growth, and we look forward to continuing this work as we expand our impact in the years ahead.
Thank you for celebrating this win with us. Together, we are building a more sustainable future, one standing desk at a time.