The End of the Demolition Era: The Rise of Deconstruction
Track
C&D
Speakers
Maybo AuYeung, Zero Waste Palo Alto
Title
Environmental Program Manager
Speaker Abstract
D is for Deconstruction: City of Palo Alto is pivoting from traditional Construction & Demolition to Construction & Deconstruction.
CALGreen building code requires that 65% of C&D debris must be diverted from most job sites in California, while Palo Alto’s local requirement is to reach 80% diversion. However, to achieve Palo Alto’s aggressive Zero Waste goal to reach 95% diversion by 2030 citywide, waste generated from C&D projects must be better managed. To address that, Palo Alto adopted the Deconstruction and Construction Materials Management Ordinance - the first deconstruction ordinance in the nation that targets both commercial and residential whole structure removal projects.
This presentation will share the development of the ordinance, provide an update on the ordinance implementation since July 2020, show case studies of completed deconstruction projects, and discuss feasibility and plans to expand the ordinance in the future.