2022 CLF Boston/New England Reuse Roadmap - Manual / Resource - Page 19
Deconstruction and
Material Reuse Roadmap
Combining all of these efforts, as well as collaboration
with local communities to understand their needs,
policy, and legislation can begin to target those
who have the most to gain from these changes.
Owners and Developers
Owners and developers have the power to provide the
largest changes to the reuse and deconstruction market.
By working with design teams and understanding that
reusing materials comes with reduced cost and lead times,
owners can be incentivized to jump on these opportunities.
Credit: City of Boston Deconstruction Initiative
Currently, many owners and developers are
ignorant of the benefits of building and material
reuse in their projects. While some sophisticated
owners may understand small benefits to
overall sustainable construction and design
tenants, reuse is often never considered.
Most developers or large owners operate at thin
margins, and typically consider any additional
design or construction alternatives as too much
risk, whether it be financial or temporal.
For example, in a typical tenant fit-out in
a Boston office space the owners:
• Have a set idea of how they want a new space to
look, based on corporate branding or vision.
• Often do not want or care about the
existing material in the space.
• Do not want the financial burden of
disposing of the existing material.
• Often do not understand the value of the amount
of salvageable material, including furniture,
carpet and ceiling tiles, light fixtures, doors, and
other highly reusable materials typically left.
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Larger owners/developers look to fill spaces quickly
or create new projects that have a high likelihood of a
significant return on investment. Buildings transitioning
to life sciences work, an extremely in-demand industry,
will strip existing spaces down to core and shell and
look to quickly retrofit a space. Many times, in their
haste to rebuild and rebrand a space, the remaining
materials are seen as a nuisance, not an opportunity.
However, with the growing importance of ESG
reporting, many owners are looking to improve
their building practices to reflect the changing
attitudes of investors and communities towards
sustainable and environmentally beneficial practices.
What do we need to be doing?
Owners and developers have the power to
provide the largest changes to the reuse and
deconstruction market. By working with design
teams and understanding that reusing materials
comes with reduced cost and lead times, owners
can be incentivized to jump on these opportunities.
Large owners in the region, such as Boston Properties,
CBRE, and Alexandria, often own several sizable
buildings close to each other and can benefit most
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