Event Description

It is estimated that over 800 billion tons of natural resources worldwide are stored in the built environment alone . Deconstruction of structures in the built environment is a systematic disassembly process that facilitates material separation and maximizes the market value of recovered materials. This disassembly process minimizes damage to the generated materials and increases their potential for salvage and reuse. Deconstruction can be conducted on whole buildings instead of demolition or during renovations. Deconstruction and building materials reuse policies and projects conserve resources, including finite, old-growth forest resources, divert demolition debris from disposal and advance the highest and best end-of-life uses of building materials while also creating job training and green job opportunities. The webinar will explore the success of Portland’s model deconstruction policies and insights from a successful deconstruction and reuse leader.

The below organizations are represented on this webinar:

City of Portland passed first-in-the-nation mandatory deconstruction ordinance in 2016. In the first year of the deconstruction ordinance, Portland salvaged over 5 million pounds of building materials and certified 17 deconstruction contractors. The ordinance requires anyone seeking a demolition permit for a single-family home or duplex constructed in or before 1916 or a designated historic structure, to manually deconstruct the building instead of demolishing it. The City used an innovative small grants program and developed contractor and workforce training