Environmentally friendly construction is often associated with new buildings, creatively efficient floorplans and exotic, space-age building materials — but sometimes, the most environmentally friendly solution is to use what we already have.
GOOD Magazine has a new article online about the environmental-friendliness of renovating old buildings. GOOD cites new research from the National Trust for Historic Preservation (PDF – 10.7 MB), which concludes “…that building reuse almost always offers environmental savings over demolition and new construction.” This ties in nicely with YouthBuild Omaha’s new partnership and commitment to environmental responsibility!
While previously, YouthBuild Omaha worked only with Habitat for Humanity to build new homes for local families, the program has also recently partnered with the Abide Network, a local organization committed to transforming and restoring urban neighborhoods and communities through home ownership. Environmental friendliness isn’t an explicit part of Abide’s mission, but sometimes great goals converge.
Abide Network buys condemned homes in North Omaha for an average of about $5,000 per home. Volunteers like the YouthBuild participants donate their time to renovate these homes. The majority of materials are also donated. The homes are then sold to low-income families at zero-percent interest.
Miriam Blair, YouthBuild program coordinator, shared the story of YouthBuild Omaha’s first meeting with Abide Network Executive Director Ron Dotzler in this month’s Clothes Line, which included a presentation on the organization’s goals and methods.
He showed them a large map of North Omaha, where red push pins identified violent crimes in the community over a five-year time span. Many of the students gasped in amazement, as there wasn’t even a hint of white shining through.
Mr. Dotzler went on to explain the importance of home ownership in a crime ridden community. “When people own their homes they take pride in their neighborhoods, which in turn leads to less crime,” he said.
He then showed them another map very similar to the first, with one colossal exception — due to the home renovations they’d done, a community nestled in the middle of the first map only had three violent crimes committed in the last year.
Abide itself is housed in a renovated home in North Omaha — the building was refurbished using donated materials, including paneling in the living room from an old bowling alley, tables from a Burger King, and parts of pews from an old church.
With the right selection of materials and processes, renovating single-family homes can result in 10-35% reduction in environmental impact when measuring factors like resource depletion and human health effects. And it can save and strengthen communities too!
