Brooklyn Daily Eagle "Salvage Warehouse Opens in Gowanus" - December 9, 2011

by Phoebe Neidl 

Click here to read the story on www.brooklyneagle.com

All Proceeds Go To Environmental Initiatives

GOWANUS — One man’s trash is another man’s treasure.

This old maxim is being put into practice at a non-profit organization that just opened in Gowanus.

Situated in a 21,000-square-foot warehouse space on Ninth Street, Build It Green diverts worthy building material from the garbage heap and sells it at discounted prices, with the proceeds going toward environmental initiatives throughout the city.

“The idea is to save people money while also saving materials from going into landfills,” says Harvey Jaswal, one of three employees at Build It Green’s Gowanus location, which is headed up by Karen Overton, founder of Recycle-a-Bicycle.

This is Build It Green’s second location, the first being in Astoria, Queens. Since its founding in 2005, Build It Green has kept approximately 900 tons of building materials out of the landfill and saved New Yorkers close to $1 million on purchases.

Jaswal thinks these already impressive stats will skyrocket with their new Brooklyn operation. “Most of our client base has been from Brooklyn,” says Jaswal. “There’s just a major demand here to be met.”

In Gowanus, Build It Green is surrounded by brownstone neighborhoods with a need for home improvement supplies. At their warehouse you’ll find anything from fireplace mantels, antique doorknobs, mirrors, bathtubs and sinks to radiators, rugs, light fixtures, planters and kitchen cabinets. But unlike a Lowe’s (which is right across the street) or a Home Depot, much of Build It Green’s stock is comprised of older, hard-to-find products, often of a higher quality than materials manufactured today.

“[We get] a lot of older material. You just can’t find that kind of quality anymore. So we’re helping to keep it in circulation,” Jaswal says.

In a recent perusal of the warehouse, we spotted some antique filing cabinets, which were donated by Columbia University, and stacks of white window treatments that had been salvaged from a Hamptons estate.

“Somebody’s contractor had heard of us, gave us a ring, and our deconstruction team went to check it out,” explained Jaswal of the Hamptons window acquisition. “Deconstruction is the green alternative to demolition.”

Since the value of the materials that are donated to Build It Green are tax deductible, their “decon team” gets called to construction and renovation sites all over the metropolitan area to “harvest” reusable material. And when the salvaged material gets sold, all the proceeds go to a good cause.

Build It Green is a part of the Community Environmental Center (CEC), the largest not-for-profit energy-conservation organization in the state. CEC runs programs such as weatherization assistance and LEED consulting, which improve the environmental efficiency of buildings. They also provide green jobs training, as well as education and arts programs at Solar One, a solar-powered building in Stuyvesant Cove Park in Manhattan.

Build It Green is located at 69 Ninth St. It is open five days a week, Wednesday to Friday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., and Saturday and Sunday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Find out more by calling (718) 725-8925 or visiting www.bignyc.org.

— Phoebe Neidl
Brooklyn Daily Eagle