[PDF]Community-led Reuse of Resources

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Community-led
reuse of resources

Information for community groups and social enterprises setting
up projects to reuse surplus building materials and products




Local United - diffusing practical initiatives
in response to climate change and peak oil



Local United brings together and supports community activists who are setting up social enterprises
to address the challenges of peak oil and climate change. We aim to speed up the rate at which
good ideas are adopted by community groups motivated to build low-carbon economies.

Initially eight 'diffusion packs' have been produced which offer practical suggestions for setting up
initiatives in the following areas:

Energy Farms Community-led Food Initiatives

Community-led Hydro Initiatives Sustainable Community loan Fund

Community-led Wind power Community-led Reuse of Resources

Energy Performance Energy Services Company Community-led Transport Initiatives

NESTA provided funding for the development and dissemination of these information packs which
have been written and reviewed by people with first-hand knowledge of the community and climate
action sectors they work in. Often the authors will have been involved in the conception of the
project idea and in many cases they would now be regarded as experts in their fields. Biographies
will soon be available on our websites

All of these packs are intended as on-going 'works-in-progress'. We are hoping that other groups
working in these areas will add in their experience. In time they will build into a comprehensive
library of good practice case studies. They will become a source of inspiration to community groups.
They will provide information on motivational projects which have been carried out by other
community groups and they will act as a directional tool to help communities who are ready to take
action, to do just that.

These packs are offered to groups who are interested in setting up social enterprises in these areas.
They can be downloaded from the many partner websites.

Of course, any information provided is only as up to date as the day it goes to print. Many of the
specific examples have worked so well because of the people involved, the skills they possess or the
resources that were available to them. Thus these examples will predominantly serve as an
inspirational call to arms. However, many of the packs contain useful 'how to' guides, copies of legal
templates or list of regulations, all of which may be useful to community groups wishing to set out
on their own project. All of the packs contain notes or links on where to find more help.

Feedback on these packs is continually being sought. Community groups who have used the packs
to support their own projects are very welcome, and indeed are invited, to provide information on
how useful the packs have been, what other information we should be providing or any other
feedback which may help us to improve these in the future.

Local United is keen to work with other groups and organisations active in these areas who may be
interested in offering the diffusion packs through their websites. We are also actively seeking
funding to follow up these packs with a mentoring/buddying system which will provide additional
support to emerging social enterprises.



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Diffusion Pack for a RelY (Reuse it Yourself) Centre

STRATEGY

This document provides a pack of information for an organisation seeking to establish a social
enterprise to set up a reuse centre for building products. The main outcome of the centre is to
reduce the climate impact of the 'embodied energy' used to make building products, especially
those used in building our homes. This may be a community group wanting to start an enterprise
or an existing enterprise looking to expand what it wants to achieve.

Why focus on reusing building products?

The building industry accounts for at least 10% of UK climate emissions, which is 1-2 tonnes C02
emissions per person each year. However, there is still very little support for reuse in the waste
sector in general and ways of avoiding construction waste to landfill beyond crushing and burning
the waste produced. There is also an opportunity to widen the definition of 'zero carbon homes'
to also include the energy used to build and maintain our homes, their contents, and the wider
built environment.



Other*
44%




Construction Process (10%)




Manufacture



» , Distribution
^/Operations on-site
. Refurb & Demolition

\ Design



18%

Non- ^27%
residential ^^--Residential
buildings buildings

Source DECC, National Communication, Carbon Trust Report, BiS estimates



8%
2%



Figure 1 - The Direct and Indirect C0 2 emissions of Construction in the UK

Taken from the Low Carbon Construction Innovation and Growth Team's Final Report, p21 (see
http://www.bis.gov.uk/assets/biscore/business-sectors/docs/l/10-1266-low-carbon-construction-
igt-final-report.pdf ).



The sustainability value of such a venture is also recognised in the first Energy Descent Action Plan
for Kinsale ( http://transitionculture.org/wp-

content/uploads/KinsaleEnergyDescentActionPlan.pdf ), which led to the Transition Towns
movement. This plan proposes that a sustainability centre that provides training and a
sustainable building code are both introduced. These aims combine in the reuse centre concept
set out here.




Page 2 of 17



Introduction to RelY




RelY - Reuse It Yourself -is currently an informal UK-wide network of building material reuse
centres. These follow the principles of the National Wood Recycling Centres and furniture reuse
projects - but aim to act as hubs to co-locate different enterprises and include training. These are
social enterprises 1 which collect excess construction materials and sell them on.

It is a community initiative aiming to scale-up and replicate reuse in the UK, following on from
what is already happening in the US, where there are around 700 stores in the Building Material
Reuse Association. Many of these are run as Habitat for Humanity Restores with surplus income
used to build houses for the homeless. In Lane County one charity, St Vincent de Paul runs eight
large reuse warehouses and a car park. It reuses building materials, deconstructs mattresses
across nine stores with a turnover of around $20m and around $7m surplus reinvested into social
housing and to deliver services and training (see www.svdp.us ). This enterprise combines reuse
at scale with remanufacturing, training and social outcomes.

Benefits can include:

• creating new jobs and helping economic regeneration (typically 1 job in landfill per 10,000
tonnes of waste per year can be replaced by 25 jobs in reuse and remanufacturing 2 ).

• reducing waste to landfill, landfill costs and fly tipping (over 1000 tonnes of waste
diverted from landfill by the Glasgow project in the first 9 months, typically we expect an
established project to take up to 500 tonnes of reusable items each year).

• reducing C02 emissions, (will depend on type and mix of products and materials - but as
a guide is typically 0.5-1 tonne embodied C02 per tonne of waste avoided)



RelY could also mean:

Reinvent Yourself (training and creating new skills and green jobs)

Relnspire your community. The centre can act as a hub to help foster other sustainability
projects and share knowledge and ideas in a local area, between both residents and
organisations (e.g. public sector, businesses and voluntary sector).

It is designed as an entrepreneurial initiative, so each store will be part of a national RelY network,
(for sharing and lesson learning, training and job creation contracts etc) which would be part of
the existing ReAlliance (national reuse) network, but will be operated and run locally.




1 A social enterprise can be a business with social aims (e.g. a member of the Social Firms UK
network) or a not-for-profit business or charity. The aims of the RelY social enterprise are set out
in the RelY Charter document.

2 Communication from the Commission to the Council, the European Parliament, the European
Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions: Taking sustainable use of
Resources forward: A Thematic Strategy on the prevention and recycling of waste (21 .1 2.05)
http:/7eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=COM:2005:0666:FIN:EN:PDF



Page 3 of 17



Aims

The overall aims of RelY are as follows:

Scale up Reuse. To increase the total amount of reuse in the UK by expanding into one area
where there is currently limited reuse occurring - surplus building materials from
construction, refurbishment and DIY/small building sites.

Reuse building products locally. As building products are bigger than what is normally found
in charity shops, setting up projects to reuse building products will need bigger centres for
reuse, thus can act as a hub to co-locate and reduce costs for existing reuse projects (e.g.
furniture, white goods, bric-a-brac, scrap store).

Outcomes -Social and Environmental

Reuse sits above recycling on the waste hierarchy (reduce-reuse-recycle-energy recovery-
disposal); it cuts an eco-footprint by reducing the impacts of virgin resource extraction and saves
all the embodied carbon of what is reused (crushing bricks only saves 5% of the carbon to make
them, recycling glass around 30%). However, the main beneficiaries of a reuse centre are often
the people. Social services are greater than the ecosystem services delivered! Sector research
shows most projects are set up first to alleviate poverty, and then to provide training and work
experience - while environmental benefit is important, waste reduction ranks third in terms of
motivation for the successful projects that exist across London after these social aims (see Figure
3, http://legacy.london.gov.uk/gla/publications/environment/reuse-fullreport.pdf ).
Successful projects have been designed around these aims. This includes successful reuse at scale
in the US (see below).

A Successful US Model for Reuse Centres: Large, Not-for-Profit, led by Social Aims

There are over 500 stores that reuse surplus building materials in the US. Over 200 of these are
run by Habitat for Humanity. Many employ homeless people to provide a back-to-work
experience. In Madison, Wisconsin 15 houses were built for the homeless from the store's
surplus over 5 years, and priority of occupation went to those working there. Community Campus
87 has spent 25 years running a similar project in the north east of England - providing training in
new skills to people to retrofit empty homes, which it then rents to them and uses this money to
fund new void purchases (see http://www.communitycampus87.co.uk/ ).

St Vincent de Paul in Lane County, US (with a population similar to that of Cardiff) runs 8 reuse
stores and has an annual turnover of $25m and a surplus to the community of $8m each year.
Reuse charities deconstruct over 100,000 beds each year in the US but this is still rare in the UK.
Stage sets and costumes on Broadway are generally made from reused materials because a
warehouse was donated by the New York waste department (see www.mfta.org ).

Introduction to the Generic Business Plan for the UK (produced in 2008)

Particular aspects that have made the success of reuse possible in the US are that reuse is cheaper
than recycling for companies as reuse to not-for-profit organisations can be offset against tax
liability, land is cheaper and buildings are made of wood so can be deconstructed.




Page 4 of 17



In England there is a tax incentive for charities to occupy empty warehouses, as charities have an
80% exemption (not in Scotland), high density urban areas with significant redevelopment,
refurbishment and strip-out of existing buildings and the well established Furniture Reuse
Network (see www.frn.org.uk). By occupying the premises the landlord can reduce his business
rate payments so may be able to offer a reduced or zero rent - at least for the initial year of the
business which will help reduce start-up costs (see www.meanwhile.org.uk to download legal
agreement).

A basic business plan has been produced for the UK based on study of the reuse charities in the
UK and six year cash flow and operational structure of the Restore in Madison, Wisconsin in the
US. This business plan is downloadable at www.reiy.net . Key points are summarised as follows:

• The concept is to collect a large variety of building products from sites - but focus on
those items that can be accumulated and sold easily. The aim is to have a high
throughput of saleable lower value items rather than a low rate of sale of higher value
items (architectural salvage) or low rate of sale of lower value items because there is a
wide and unpredictable selection of goods (junk shop). Therefore a minimum size of 10-
20,000 sqft is proposed.

• The project is based around a large warehouse with some external space (parking,
containers). A piece of land without fencing is not considered appropriate. A warehouse
allows remanufacture, refurbishment and sales to happen all year round - although
limited sales in November - February is normal.

• Location is important but a town centre location is not expected.

• This enterprise cannot work with its own buildings and land at corporate rents. It either
needs additional enterprise income (such as architectural salvage or training), subsidised
rent or grant support

• It can attract an 80% exemption from rates if set up as a charity, so that is recommended.

• It should charge for collections but only collect items that can be sold for reuse (timber
for recycling is an exception).

• It will probably need additional income above collection and sales of reused items. Sales
of eco-products and training is proposed.

• The financial model shows the project starting with a focus on a limited range of product
(e.g. timber and bricks), expanding its product range once sales are established in years 2-
3 to be financially sustainable after 5 years. For details of the financial model see the
business plan document.

• An upfront grant/financial support of around £100,000 is expected. This does not include
reduction in rent value.

• The financial model could be viewed by an existing not-for-profit enterprise as a strategy
to expand from a current product range (e.g. wood recycling, scrap store, paint recycling
or furniture) to create a larger enterprise.

• The model does not explore the viability of different forms of training - but budgets for
training/social outcomes to have a net contribution may help the enterprise become
financially self sufficient. Therefore, the financial model does not include for volunteer
coordinator funding which will enable the enterprise to provide employment for those
Not in Education, Employment or Training, or support those with mental or physical
disability. Activities like this will help a centre's viability but are not necessarily essential
in the business plan, which is designed as a template to secure a site.




Page 5 of 17



Minimising Risks

- All parts of enterprise contribute financially: This enterprise is the establishment of a number
of different operations - reuse collections, retail store, training/volunteer management. To
limit risks these are considered to all be managed as profit centres. This may be carried out
by one organisation in partnership (e.g. Green-Works sub-contracts warehousing and
collections of its office furniture reuse operation in London to First Fruit, social enterprise
warehousing organisation). However, it is noted that benefits from training should be
designed to be retained within the organisation not received by a third-party, such as a local
college.

Collections too expensive: RelY do not propose free collections as this leaves the savings with
the organisation served and additional costs borne by the enterprise. Some
companies/councils etc. may expect free collections. Collections that require quick sales of
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