Northeast Indiana Green Build Coalition

Green Team: Company has seen demand for its construction recycling services grow rapidly

BY LINDA LIPP lindal@fwbusiness.com
Courtesy of Fort Wayne Business Weekly

Jeff Zolnik and Candace Imbody didn’t really consider themselves environmentalists when they founded Construction Recycling Solutions in September 2005. They were just looking for a good business opportunity.

Their business and their environmentalism have grown by leaps and bounds in the 15 months since. Starting basically at zero — because no company in Fort Wayne provided construction waste recycling at the time — CRS now recycles about 60 percent of the residential construction waste in Allen County.

Since February, when they decided to begin tracking it, Imbody and Zolnik figure their company has diverted more than 2,000 tons of construction waste that otherwise would have ended up in landfills.

The idea for the business came from Imbody, who’d worked as a project manager for Zolnik at Final Coat, his drywall business, for 18 years.

Confined to bed after surgery, Imbody spent a lot of time on the Internet. From her laptop computer, she researched recycling business opportunities and found a company in Georgia from which the pair could purchase a drywall grinder.

“The first stage in recycling is to reduce the volume of the waste,” Imbody said. The grinder reduces drywall by a factor of 10 to one, and also can handle wood, plastic, shingles and other construction materials.

The $90,000 machine, which at the time was pretty much the latest, greatest and largest around, was demonstrated in November 2005 at a Habitat for Humanity project in Fort Wayne.

“We quickly outgrew it,” Zolnik said. The company now owns a second grinder, a $250,000 machine with 10 times the capacity of the first one, or about 100 tons of construction waste per day.

“This business takes a little investment to be a player. It takes a little bit of knowledge and education and guts,” Zolnik said.

CRS originally did its sorting and grinding at its headquarters facility on 1130 W. Main St. It still has some operations there, but has moved the bigger part of the business to a second, 11-acre site.

The recycling business got a boost early on when it signed up three prominent Allen County homebuilders, Lancia Homes, Bob Buescher Homes and Heller Homes.

“When Jim and Candace approached me, I just thought it was a great idea,” Jim Lancia said. “We’ve been in business for 31 years, and during all the period, there was a lot of waste.”

Builders were paying an estimated $450 per Dumpster, with each house generating an average of about 2 1/2 Dumpster loads of waste, to have construction debris hauled away. CRS tried to price its service to save contractors about 10 percent to 20 percent, Zolnik said.

“I don’t know if it’s saved money as much as it’s saved the environment,” said Lancia, who is president of his family’s home-building business.

Recycling waste at residential construction sites is different than recycling waste from commercial projects.

“No Dumpsters is the key to residential, because people will throw all kinds of other stuff in,” Imbody said.

Instead, contractors and subcontractors sort their waste on the curb while the house is being framed. Once it’s under roof, items are sorted and staged in containers in the garage, Imbody said.

There’s a little bit of a learning curve for workers new to the idea, and a few grumbled about it. But they learned to appreciate the service last winter when they didn’t have to drag stuff out to a trash bin, Imbody noted.

CRS began recycling drywall and then branched into other products, including wood, roofing, vinyl siding, metal, cardboard and plastics.

“We realized over 90 percent of the waste can be recycled,” Imbody said.

From residential construction, the company moved on to commercial projects, including Sweetwater Sound’s new headquarters building and the regional public safety academy in Fort Wayne, the new library under construction in Kendallville and various projects at Ball State University.

The company currently is offering the residential service just in Allen County, but is going a little further afield for commercial projects. To help serve customers outside the area, CRS is developing a network of affiliate recyclers that can refer business to each other.

“As our business has grown, our contractors are bringing it to us,” Zolnik said.

On the other side of the business, CRS also brings in revenue by selling the waste it has been paid to take in.

“We have become brokers of products from construction sites,” Zolnik said.

The gypsum powder from ground drywall is used as a soil treatment for farmland, ground wood can be used as animal bedding and bits and pieces of plastic and vinyl products can be melted down and reused to manufacture new products.

Most of the items recycled are resold and reused within the county, Zolnik said.

The company recently hired former Allen County Solid Waste Management District coordinator Joe Copeland to find new markets.

CRS started with one truck and four workers, including Zolnik and Imbody. Now it has six trucks and 15 employees.

Zolnik’s goal is to eventually recycle 80 percent of waste generated by residential builders in Allen County. The other 20 percent, he reasons, won’t recycle unless and until it becomes mandatory.

He also wants Fort Wayne to gain a national reputation for leadership in recycling.

“I want to make Fort Wayne the first city in the U.S. that we can say that 75 to 80 percent of our contractors recycle,” he said.

Originally published in Greater Fort Wayne Business Weekly Dec. 22-26 issue. Published by permission.

February 2005, Submitted by:
John Perlich, Public Information, 260-427-6957

Fort Wayne, Ind. - Mayor Graham Richard tonight announced his 'Green City' initiative aimed at improving government services and making the City more environmentally friendly. Mayor Richard made the announcement during his Report to the People speech at the Northwest Area Partnership.

'Green City' initiative
Purchase hybrid vehicles
Repave Rivergreenway
Floral gardens along major corridors
Endorse environmentally friendly construction

The City will purchase seven hybrid vehicles, which combine a conventional gasoline engine with an electric motor. The new vehicles will save the City $112,000 in fuel costs. The hybrid vehicles increase fuel efficiency and will assist the City in its efforts to reduce ozone pollution. City diesel trucks will also begin converting to biodiesel fuel.

City crews will repave the Rivergreenway system and make landscaping and signage upgrades. The repaving of the entire greenway is expected to take three years. Beginning this spring, crews will repave the one-mile section of greenway from the Harrison Street bridge to the Main Street bridge, and the one thousand feet of greenway along West Jefferson Boulevard in East Swinney Park. Last September, Mayor Richard announced a $2 million commitment to improve and add trails and greenways. The City's financial support combined with other funding sources could bring the total to $8 million.

"Our commitment to innovative investments helps us attract new businesses and jobs," said Mayor Richard. "Our ability to be inspired to make positive changes will enhance the quality of life in Fort Wayne. We will be a leader in providing the best amenities and services."

Floral gardens will be created along four major corridors. Clinton Street from Northcrest Shopping Center to Washington Center Road; West Jefferson Boulevard from Covington/Getz roads to Ardmore Avenue; Lafayette Street from Tillman Road to South Anthony Boulevard; and East Washington Boulevard east of Memorial Park to the Auto Auction. The City also plans to update City markers, which will include improving electrical systems and new landscaping.

Mayor Richard encouraged businesses to gain Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification for new commercial buildings and major renovations of existing buildings. LEED standards address water conservation, energy efficiency, indoor air quality, and the use of sustainable materials in construction.

Mayor Richard endorsed the work of the Northeast Indiana Green Build Coalition. The local organization's purpose is to educate construction professionals, business owners and the public about green building.

The Mayor's next and final Report to the People will be on Thurs. Feb. 24 at 6:30 p.m. at Homestead High School, 4310 Homestead Rd.Posted by Admin at 08:56 AM

Title: 'Green' building gathers steam
Author:
Source: News-Sentinel
Date Written: 2/25/2005

'Green' building gathers steam Coalition touts environmental construction By Linda Lipp llipp@news-sentinel.com

Early on a dreary February morning, a diverse collection of determined revolutionaries gathers around a long table set up in a chilly warehouse on the outskirts of Fort Wayne. Their goal: To change forever the way buildings are constructed in northeast Indiana. The Northeast Indiana Green Build Coalition has been meeting informally since November and for the most part has stayed beneath the public's radar. That will change March 9, when the group will host a meeting during the 28th annual Building Contractors Association trade show at Memorial Coliseum. "It was just a natural for us," said Lori Harvey, executive director of BCA, which donated a booth space for the fledgling environmental construction advocacy group.

The local Green Build Coalition evolved out of a Leadership Fort Wayne project. Regina Leffers, president of Synergid Commercial, was the primary "instigator" of the idea, but found willing participants in the other members of her project team: Andy Veenstra, Wells Fargo; Mike Michmerhuizen, Barrett McNagny; Rose Newman-Clevenger, Sentry Management Services; and Randy Fillmore, formerly of Habitat for Humanity. Leffers, who started her own construction company a few years ago, has had an interest in the principles of environmentally friendly building and design, "but I didn't know a lot about it." Last summer, she took a group from her company to Cleveland to look at green projects that have been completed in that area. One is a renovated century-old downtown bank building, now known as the Cleveland Environmental Center. The project was the first commercial green-building retrofit in Ohio. It preserved a historic building but still incorporated cutting-edge green-building principles, including a new geothermal heating system and underground cistern for water runoff. "Who would have thought that in downtown Cleveland you could drill 21 wells around a building and change its heating system to geothermal?" Leffers said.

Also on the tour was Oberlin College's Adam Lewis Environmental Studies Center. The 7-year-old building serves as a national prototype for ecologically friendly design. "It's a thing of beauty," Leffers said. "We came back really jazzed." What surprised Leffers a little, when she and her team started the coalition, was how many others shared her interest in green building. "The first meeting, we set up for 20 people and we had 30. The next meeting, we set up for 30 and had 40. To come to a meeting in a warehouse at 7:30 on a Monday morning - they were pretty passionate about it," she said. Another force behind the local Green Build Coalition is former Fort Wayne resident Adele DeMarco Kious, a Cleveland-based environmental design consultant who also works with EcoCity Cleveland. "Green building isn't something that just Birkenstock-wearing, granola-eating environmentalists are thinking of," Kious told the two dozen people who gathered for the February meeting.

The principles of green building include energy efficiency, self-sufficiency and sustainability, the use of new construction materials or reuse of old ones to conserve natural resources, natural wastewater treatment, and improving the quality of the indoor environment. "It's not so much the new thing; in many ways it's the old thing," Kious said. Before the days of plentiful energy, buildings were constructed with windows that provided not only natural light, but could be opened to let in fresh air. Planners paid attention to things such as wind direction, because facing a building the wrong way could make it more difficult to heat, keep cool or illuminate. Modern commercial construction abandoned many of those practices. But now, with energy and operating costs escalating, building owners and contractors are rethinking some basic construction principles. And that's just the beginning.

"I actually started from the health standpoint - how the built environment affects people's health," Kious said. Not only do green buildings save on energy costs, studies have shown that fresh air and sunshine can improve productivity, boost sales and reduce absenteeism and turnover. School systems also are beginning to take notice of the values of a healthy, energy-efficient environment. Lancaster Elementary, a new school north of Bluffton, uses a series of heat pumps, rather than conventional central heating, to provide room-by-room control of air temperature and quality. The system also recovers heat generated by other mechanical components in the building, such as the refrigeration system, and uses the warmth of expended air to preheat cold new air coming in from outside. Steve Park, of architectural firm Moake Park, designed the school building. Also a member of the local green-build group, Park acknowledges that the initial costs of green building can be more expensive than conventional methods. Lancaster cost about $30 a square foot for mechanical, electrical and plumbing, compared with $25 a square foot for a traditional building. Fuel costs for the geothermal heating system are expected to average 60 cents to 65 cents a square foot annually, compared with 70 cents to 80 cents for a conventionally heated building.

"It's kind of a long payback time," Park said. But those who criticize green building as too expensive don't realize it is the long term that matters, said Luke Gascho, executive director of Goshen College's Merry Lea Environmental Learning Center at Wolf Lake. This spring, the center will begin construction on the first phase of an eight-building "green" project. "People often make that statement because they only want to count the first cost," Gascho said. "We're working at a full-cost accounting." The first phase of the $8 million project will include a classroom building and two "cottages" that will house 16 students apiece. The energy-efficient buildings will use about one-third the energy of typical construction. Metal roofs will reflect sunlight and collect rainwater to use in toilets. Solar panels and a wind generator will produce about 25 percent of the energy needed for the entire project. Landscaping will be used to control storm water runoff, and the construction of wetlands and eventually a greenhouse will provide treatment for wastewater and sewage.

The project's green-build components may take 20 years to pay off, but the savings on energy costs alone will be thousands of dollars a year - and the buildings are expected to last at least 75 years. "So I think the best answer is that green building will cost less," Gasho said. The Merry Lea project was one of the first in Indiana to be registered with the U.S. Green Building Council, the first step in the "Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design" certification process. The LEED rating system encompasses ratings, from silver to platinum, based on how extensively a building incorporates principles of environmentally friendly design, construction and maintenance. There are no LEED-certified buildings in Indiana as yet, but Fort Wayne Mayor Graham Richard said recently he would encourage companies to seek LEED certification for new and renovated buildings as part of his Green City environmental initiative.