When More is More: Surplus Building Products Reduction and Redistribution
Track
C&D
Session Description
In San Francisco, building materials represent about half of all municipal solid waste generation and approximately a quarter of all disposal. Reuse is an obvious strategy to address generation reduction and disposal to landfill, but it is currently complicated to implement. Typically, reuse is associated with items rescued from existing buildings (i.e., salvage), but that is not the sole source. Another feedstock for reuse is surplus, which is different from salvage because it is a product that has been purchased for construction but not installed. Surplus items are often pristine, well-documented, and new-in-box, so may be a gentler initiation to reuse principles and have a greater potential for market absorption. This session will summarize findings from the San Francisco Surplus Building Products Reduction and Redistribution Study, which offers insights about situations that lead to surplus on construction sites, including building product types, quantities, and frequency, as well as ways to minimize and repurpose these items. Panelists will explain two principal paths for addressing surplus: minimizing the amount of excess items generated in the first place; and determining alternate uses for the items that have been designed, manufactured, and transported to the jobsite rather than send them to landfill. We will also share some opportunities for local government to amplify synergies to drive the greatest benefit. The primary goal of the session is to supplement the considerations of an individual, organization, or project team working to achieve zero waste goals for construction.
Speakers
Kena David, BCCI Construction
Title
Director of Sustainability, Wellness, & ESG
Speaker Abstract
As a member of the Bay Area Sustainable Construction Leaders group, both panelists have focused on understanding the impact of construction waste generated as a result of building demolition and construction in San Francisco. Working with SF Department of the Environment to help quantify excess materials that could be diverted from the landfill has lead the BASCL group to some best practices and optimizations for both demolition and construction. The main perspective Kena will be offering as a part of this discussion is focused on the tenant improvement and renovations/alterations’ demolition and construction projects. She will also share tips and best practices for salvaging material before and during demolition, which is typically self-performed at BCCI. Kena will also share some successful examples of working upstream with design teams for design-build project in order to reach goals for material reuse, reclaimed, and salvaged material installation. In addition, she will share some of the current constraints on contractors for meeting waste diversion goals and start a discussion on how Government and industry can work to solve this.
Tolga Tutar, Skanska USA Building
Title
Sustainability Director
Speaker Abstract
As a member of the Bay Area Sustainable Construction Leaders group, both panelists have focused on understanding the impact of construction waste generated as a result of building demolition and construction in San Francisco. Working with SF Department of the Environment to help quantify excess materials that could be diverted from the landfill has led the BASCL group to some best practices and optimizations for both demolition and construction.
The main perspective Tolga will be offering as a part of this discussion is focused on the impact of surplus on carbon emissions. Between now and 2060 the world’s population is expected to be doubling the amount of building floor-space, equivalent to building an entire New York City every month for 40 years. Therefore, construction projects that do not have the resources, tools and expertise to reducing surplus and finding new uses for surplus assets, and that do not properly address this issue early in the process, will be significantly contributing to this ever-growing problem not only from the resource efficiency and waste perspective, but also from the carbon emissions perspective as well. Tolga will discuss the urgent need for addressing the embodied carbon emissions in construction, the findings from the San Francisco Surplus Building Products Reduction and Redistribution Study from a general contractor perspective and share insights with the participants about the strategies to address surplus and reduce embodied carbon in construction projects.