1. Sustainability Concepts

2. Life Cycle Costing – Cost at time of purchase is amortized over the life of the building. Example: A chair that costs $100.00 and lasts 50 years is better than a chair that costs $50.00 and lasts 10 years. Swedish Finish vs. Water Based floor finish Life Cycle Assessment – “Cradle to Grave “ cost. How much environmental damage is done creating and transporting an What is the environmental impact during its life? What happens to it when is becomes unusable, is it recyclable?

3. Cradle to Grave – A one way street. Billions of dollars and huge quantities of natural resources are used to make things that are discarded in our landfills and incinerators. We are called consumers but very little of what we purchase is actually consumed. Everything not for consumption is designed for you to throw away. The next time you take out the garbage remember that it only represents 5% of the resources that went into making and delivering it.

4. Construction Waste 124 million tons of construction debris is buried in landfills every year. That is enough debris to build a wall about 30 feet high and 30 feet thick around the entire coast of the continental United States (4,993 miles). * Each year the United States buries about 33 million tons of wood related construction and demolition debris in our landfills. As anaerobic microorganisms decompose this wood, it will release about 5 million tons of carbon equivalent in the form of methane gas. This is equivalent to the yearly emissions of 3,736,000 passenger cars. *

5. 50 percent of consumed materials (globally) are used in construction and remodeling. ** Re-using the lumber from just one house (2,000 square feet) saves 33 mature trees? * For every ton of wood that is reused, we avoid creating 60 pounds of greenhouse gasses.* * Statistics are used with permission from the great folks at Deconstruction InstituteDeconstruction Institute **Statistics are used from Sierra Magazine - Jan/Feb 2005Sierra Magazine

6. How Can We Help? Reuse, reclaim, reduce and recycle Deconstruct rather than demolish Metro Recycling Toolkit Green Development Resource Center Deconstruction Services The Rebuilding Center