ReuseConex-1st National Reuse Conference/Expo

If you are interested in incorporating reuse into your green building techniques, then ReuseConex is for you. Organized by the Reuse Alliance, this first-of-its kind conference allows you to learn from experts around the country.

The adaptive reuse sessions in their “Best Practice” track are designed for design and construction professionals, from remodeling contractors to interior designers, who pride themselves on implementing green strategies. While our “Reuse 101” sessions are designed for students and DIY enthusiasts looking to learn more about how reuse fits into their green building projects.

Some of the sessions focused on reuse and green building, include:
·      Pros & Cons of Building Materials Reuse and Deconstruction Strategies (Hybrid, Custom, Full)
·      Reuse in Commercial & Residential Developments
·      Historic Preservation through Reuse
·      Adaptive Reuse Case Studies (North Carolina’s Textile Mills)
·      Reuse & The Built Environment
·      Design for Reuse Primer
·      How to Create a C&D Waste Reuse & Recycling Ordinance in your Community
·      Interior Designing with Used & Repurposed Materials
·      DIY Green Roofs using Reclaimed Materials

The presence of US Green Building Council (USGBC), Building Materials Reuse Association (BMRA) and Reuse Alliance members on our plenaries and panels will help foster a dynamic learning experience for you.

PlanetReuse has the pleasure of joining the great list of speakers and exhibitors.  Nathan Benjamin will be presenting on a panel on Tuesday and at the round-table on Wednesday.  Stop by and visit PlanetReuse on the Expo floor. 

If you’re interested in promoting your green building services to a regional and national audience, in addition to learning and networking, please inquire about the ReuseConex exhibitor packages.

To register click here. 
For more information, go to: http://reuseconex.org

September Opportunities - Sept Flyer '10

Want to save money on your project? And build sustainably?
Here are some ways we can help.

Looking for options on your project where you can save money and divert materials from landfills?  There are some great reclaimed, excess new and FSC options from great sources throughout North America in our latest PlanetReuse flyer. 

The latest summary contains some innovative materials and a lot of great deals.  Here are a couple:

Reclaimed Herman Miller Aeron Chairs & Office Furniture
Downsizing of firms has caused a surplus in chairs, office furniture, lobby chairs, conference room tables, etc. Great-looking, like-new options at huge savings vs new.  We can help with layouts and coordination with your unique project and no project is too large or small.
Reclaimed Herman Miller Aeron Chairs & Office Furniture

Reclaimed Raised Access Flooring
Need any on your Project? Want to save money?
Reclaimed access flooring is a great way to save money, bump your LEED MRc3.1 percentage, AND divert materials from the landfill.  We can help with shop drawings, coordination and installation.  Need 1,000SF or even 500,000SF?  No project too large or too small.
Reclaimed Raised Access Flooring

To check out the latest flyer, click here.

Don't see what you are looking for?  Just let us know what you are looking for and we'll find it for you.

Want to join our newsletter so you receive updates as they are sent out?  Register for our newsletter and flyers here.

GreenTown Chicago 2010

GreenTown: The Future of Community is designed to help create sustainable communities. Mayors and elected officials, public works directors, park district directors, planners, developers, architects, landscape architects, builders, school leaders and others interested in seeing how a community can become greener, gather to hear from inspiring speakers, learn from been-there case studies and discuss actionable ways to make communities greener, healthier and more prosperous.

GreenTown Chicago will be held on October 13-14, 2010, at Columbia College Chicago and will be sponsored by the City of Chicago, Department of Environment. 

There are many great presenters from the City of Chicago, Animal Planet and Planet Green, iGo, Seven Generations Ahead, Plant Chicago, City of San Francisco, Chicago Public Schools, and many, many more.  Here is a preliminary agenda from the event, Agenda.

One of the many great breakout sessions:

Innovation in Building Material Waste Reuse & Recycling.   This panel will feature managers of two Chicago businesses that are reusing or recycling large volumes of construction & demolition waste and a business that makes it easy for architects and builders to find reclaimed materials for their projects.  The ReBuilding Exchange (RX), a new Chicago-based building material reuse store that diverted 1,200 tons of building materials from deconstructed homes and residential rehab work in its first year of operations.  Recycling Systems, Inc. is sorting and reselling even greater volumes of C&D waste from demolition activity in Chicago.  PlanetReuse matches reclaimed materials with designers and builders to save projects money. Panelists will discuss major markets and customers and present visuals of how materials are being reused or recycled by contractors, designers and how the use of recycled materials can help buildings earn LEED certification.

Moderator:  Chris Slattery, Senior Director, Delta Institute

Panelists: 
·         Meegan Czop, Business Manager, the ReBuilding Exchange
·         Jerry Golf, Jr., President, Recycling Systems, Inc.
·         Nathan Benjamin, Principal + Founder, PlanetReuse

This “Biocycle #2” breakout will run from 2:15 – 3:15 p.m. on October 14, 2010.

Reuse It: The Movie

Great video on Building Materials Reuse:

Bryce Jacobson of the Metro Portland Sustainability Center is the narrator of this new film, Reuse It: The Movie.

The twelve minute film provides a background on the current waste stream in the state of Oregon, makes a compelling case for the need to reuse building materials, and provides an overview of the resources available to Oregon residents to find and use salvaged building materials.

What a good example to implement throughout the US in every community.

Nice job BRING and everyone involved!


To view the movie, please click here.

Design for Reuse Primer Released

Here's a great newly released publication for the material reuse industry.  With a real need to showcase the success stories seen in the increasing number of projects incorporating reclaimed materials as well as discuss the process, this Primer is a must read.

Funded by the US Green Building Council, this free publication shares the stories of fifteen innovative projects, from across the United States and Canada, which have successfully incorporated reused materials.

The 15 diverse projects in the Design for Reuse Primer demonstrate new models of “building green.” Material reuse is always integral to a sustainable vision of how to tread lightly on the earth, be economically pragmatic, and nurture a community. From a school for children with learning differences to a center for holistic living, these case studies are intended to provide insights about the material reuse process in a wide variety of context. By discussing the challenges and demonstrating the benefits of reclaimed materials, they hope to demystify and inspire reuse.

The Design for Reuse Primer publication and website are the latest resources of Public Architecture's ongoing efforts to demystify and promote building material reuse.

Download Public Architecture’s newly released publication, the Design for Reuse Primer. 

There are many great projects that are reviewed in the Primer.  PlanetReuse enjoyed working on two of the fifteen projects:

- Omega Center Center for Sustainable Living
- Operation Comeback 5200 Dauphine Street

Both projects had amazing owners and design teams that really pushed the boundaries in incorporating reclaimed materials.

Visit www.designforreuse.org to download the primer and learn more.

Lead Renovation, Repair, and Painting (RRP) Rule Webinar hosted by EPA

Questions about the new Lead Renovation, Repair, and Painting Rule??  This will be a great, informative session to help answer them.

Tammy Moore, of EPA Region 5's Lead Program, will be hosting a free webinar on Thursday, October 28th, at 2:00 pm Central time titled "Updates to the Lead Renovation, Repair, and Painting (RRP) Rule." 

Please note that she is specifically targeting an audience with special interests, including deconstruction and historic preservation for the 10/28 webinar; other similar webinars that week are targeted toward other audiences (see info below for details).  Please spread the word -- this is an opportunity to learn more about the RRP Rule and participate in a live Q and A session.

You must register in advance for the 10/28 webinar at https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/558759305.  If you have any questions about this program, please contact Tammy Moore at 312-886-6181.

LEAD AWARENESS WEEK (October 25th-29th): There will be five consecutive webinars held during “Lead Awareness Week” targeting specific audiences that are affected by the RRP Rule.

The Webinar will cover-
·      An overview of the RRP rule
·      New Changes to the RRP rule
·      Compliance to the RRP rule
·      Enforcement of the RRP Rule in Region 5

The Webinars will address specifically how the rule affects the targeted audience to facilitate more informative information sharing during the Q and A sessions.  

Space is limited!  Reserve your Webinar seat now at the link next to the appropriate date:
October 25th, 2010- Landlords and Childcare Centers https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/783468641
October 26th, 2010- RRP Contractors https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/894698513
October 27th, 2010-State and Local Health Agencies https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/613377545
October 28th, 2010-Special Interest (Historic Preservationist, Deconstruction Industry, NGO’s)  https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/558759305
October 29th, 2010-Housing and Permitting Professionals https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/808763216

*Each Webinar will be held at 2:00 p.m. central time, and will be 90 minutes long.  Q and A session will follow each presentation.

PlanetReuse Lists Its Lines of Reclaimed Building Materials on GreenWizard

To Advance Sustainable Building and LEED Credits, PlanetReuse Partners with GreenWizard to Provide Comprehensive Online Source for Reclaimed, FSC, & Excess New Building Materials

PRESS RELEASE:
Charleston, SC – September 1, 2010 – GreenWizard, Inc., the largest collection of green building product data for intelligent material selection, and PlanetReuse, a consulting-and-brokering company focused on reclaimed, FSC, and excess new building materials, have formed a new alliance that makes reclaimed building materials even more accessible to architects, engineers, and contractors (AEC) focused on LEED credits and green-and-sustainable building.

Initially, PlanetReuse will list 20+ categories of reclaimed and excess new building products in GreenWizard’s database.  A product specifier can request a product by category (e.g. wood, flooring, furniture, doors, etc.), and enter in their project location.  With that information, the team at PlanetReuse will source the product from its regional inventory or actively search for the desired product in current demolition and salvage projects. The quality and quantity of the reclaimed products are assured by PlanetReuse.

PlanetReuse prefers to engage AEC firms, owners, and contractors during the design-and-preconstruction phases, because that’s the way to maximize LEED credits through local use, which takes advanced planning.  PlanetReuse works at no cost to the design team during the design phase on projects, and its minimal brokering fee is included when materials are delivered to the new project, so PlanetReuse’s service is essentially free-of-charge.  With planning, PlanetReuse clients typically obtain reused products for less than the cost of new.

“Only 6 to 8% of LEED-certified projects have ever obtained the LEED Materials Reuse credits, MRc3.1 or MRc3.2, which require that 5%-10% of materials have been installed previously,” explains Nathan Benjamin, PlanetReuse’s Principal + Founder.  “We believe we can drive that number significantly higher.  After all, it’s a relatively easy LEED credit to obtain when working through the process with partners like PlanetReuse and Green Wizard.”

“AEC firms are not adverse to using reclaimed materials, if they are quality- and quantity-assured,” explains GreenWizard’s Adam Bernholz.  “Now, with PlanetReuse, those firms finally have a viable alternative materials source.”

About PlanetReuse

If you make using reclaimed material reuse easier, more people will do it.  This simple but revolutionary goal drove the founders of PlanetReuse to create a new kind of company. Frustrated by the time and resources it took to track down salvaged materials for their own commercial projects, the PlanetReuse team took an entrepreneurial leap to uncover a solution for the entire built industry.

Initially an internet-based e-commerce material website, PlanetReuse has evolved into a consulting-and-brokering company focused on providing the insight, experience, and materials its clients need.  With a well-defined and efficient process, PlanetReuse expertly matches materials with designers, builders, and owners to save projects money, serve LEED efforts, and sustain the planet. Under the leadership of founder Nathan Benjamin, the company has grown 300 percent in the last year. Learn more: www.PlanetReuse.com

About GreenWizard

GreenWizard Inc. is a technology company offering the most comprehensive web-based software platform for green building materials from thousands of manufacturers. GreenWizard’s WORKflow Pro software is the only data-driven workflow solution helping the design and construction community by putting search, compare, purchase, and LEED documentation capabilities at their fingertips. MARKET Pro software is the only data-driven marketing solution that brings green building products face to face with decision makers in the design and construction community actively engaged in projects.  The Company employs a Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) software model delivered over the Internet for its process automation tool, communication center, business analytics, and interactive marketplace. Combined, this platform allows project participants to efficiently navigate the most comprehensive and up-to-date database of green building products, utilizing the most advanced analytical tools and information available in the market. The Charleston, SC-based company was founded in 2008.  More info: www.GreenWizard.com.