The University of Texas at Austin

• Selectee: The University of Texas at Austin
• Project Description: The University of Texas at Austin will develop supply chain emission data sets for three
  salvage product categories: dimensional lumber, commercial doors and waste plastic. Using these data sets, The University of Texas at Austin intends to develop PCRs for salvaged materials and establish a framework for robust EPDs for salvaged materials. The project also includes an open-source toolkit for computing the environmental impacts of salvaged construction products and materials. Partnering with Urban Machine, re:3D, Doors Unhinged, The Reuse People and Florida A&M University, this project aims to develop robust product category rules (PCRs) for salvaged and remanufactured construction materials. The project seeks to quantify the greenhouse gas and air quality impacts associated with remanufacturing processes by conducting a comprehensive uncertainty assessment for materials such as dimensional lumber, commercial doors and 3D printed waste plastic. This data will help create transparent EPDs, enhancing confidence in the environmental benefits of using remanufactured materials over raw/virgin products. This project will contribute to reducing greenhouse gas emissions and to support a growing marketplace for sustainable
  construction materials. 
• Award: EPA Reducing Embodied Greenhouse Gas Emissions for Construction Materials and Products Grant Program
• Link: https://www.epa.gov/greenerproducts/grant-program-reducing-embodied-greenhouse-gas-emissions-construction-materials-and

The Research Foundation for the State University of New York

• Selectee: The Research Foundation for the State University of New York
• Project Description: This project will develop a comprehensive framework and an adaptive tool for producing
  robust EPDs for salvaged and recovered building materials. The project will develop a core PCR for such materials, tools with integrated EPD templates, and a life cycle inventory. This project will also integrate methods with a range of impact categories beyond global warming potential, validate the tools using case studies and stakeholder feedback, and generate verifiable EPDs. This project seeks to share information on further recoverability and increase the likelihood of material reuse based on circular economy direction. The tool will encourage all reuse businesses to develop and use EPDs for communicating and incentivizing their materials. The project will work closely with local and regional waste management companies, recyclers and recovered materials manufacturers. The project will also develop archetypes of different types of salvaged and recovered materials and investigate existing strategies to develop a comprehensive framework for producing EPDs. The tool will incorporate data from the U.S. EPA’s Construction and Demolition Debris management datasets and local practices, ensuring it reflects regional specificities and local production practices. The project willestablish a standardized, industry-adaptable method for producing verifiable and robust EPDs by validating the tool with case studies and disseminating the findings through workshops and academic publications. The project will enhance the transparency and quality of environmental impact assessments and promote the reuse of materials, contributing to a more sustainable construction industry.
• Award: EPA Reducing Embodied Greenhouse Gas Emissions for Construction Materials and Products Grant Program
• Link: https://www.epa.gov/greenerproducts/grant-program-reducing-embodied-greenhouse-gas-emissions-construction-materials-and

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

• Selectee: Massachusetts Institute of Technology
• Project Description: Despite the potential carbon and cost benefits, there are still many barriers to adoption of
  structural steel element reuse, including supply chain dynamics and availability, absence of trust and communication, and lack of reuse markets. This project will develop an academic hub for advancing rigorous reused steel EPDs through researching the carbon implications of structural steel reuse (including reproducible regional EPDs), establishing industry collaboration and a reused steel supply chain network for market development, and providing regional guidance for publishing the open data needed for robust reused steel EPDs. This project will maximize efficiency and reach by producing LCAs in various formats, (including a reproducible EPD), advising fabricators on how to manage EPDs for reused and surplus steel, publishing educational resources on EPD reuse frameworks for all supply chain actors, improving municipal-level data quality and quantity, improving data quality and quantity about deconstruction processes, ensuring the use of different data distribution methods and expanding EPD generation capacity of manufacturers. Finally, the project will include the development of an annual workshop on steel reuse, which will bring together stakeholders from industry and academia to advance the widespread adoption of steel reuse and to quantify the resulting costs and carbon reductions
• Award: EPA Reducing Embodied Greenhouse Gas Emissions for Construction Materials and Products Grant Program
• Link: https://www.epa.gov/greenerproducts/grant-program-reducing-embodied-greenhouse-gas-emissions-construction-materials-and

Evanston Rebuilding Warehouse

• Selectee: Evanston Rebuilding Warehouse (Rebuilding Exchange)
• Project Description: Rebuilding Exchange will use data collected at its two reuse stores and through its deconstruction services to demonstrate the reduced embodied greenhouse gas in salvaged construction materials. Through this project, they will develop 25 EPDs, train 150 participants through a workforce training program, share data online. The goal of the project is to enhance the quality of greenhouse gas data associated with salvaged materials, provide tools for other practitioners, create new/updated EPDs that demonstrate the significant embodied carbon reduction and other environmental impacts of salvaged materials, and spur market demand. 
• Award: EPA Reducing Embodied Greenhouse Gas Emissions for Construction Materials and Products Grant Program
• Link: https://www.epa.gov/greenerproducts/grant-program-reducing-embodied-greenhouse-gas-emissions-construction-materials-and

Cornell University

• Selectee: Cornell University
• Project Description: This project will address gaps and challenges in the deconstruction-to-reuse value chain
  by convening experts across academia, industry and nonprofit organizations. The group will develop a Salvaged Products Passport (SPP) that combines a robust EPD+ dataset with elements of a product catalog (or materials passport) to enable adoption of reuse by industry at scale. With their project partners - the Cornell University Circular Construction Laboratory (CCL),Urban Machine (UM), Finger Lakes ReUse (FLR) and Build Reuse (BR) – the grantee will develop a process and template called Salvage EPD (SEPD) that will function as a product catalog for salvaged materials when used with a materials passport. These two sources of documentation will form a Salvaged Products Passport (SPP). The goals of the SPP are to spur market demand, enable application and procurement of salvaged materials, increase the transparency of greenhouse gas data, and assist businesses in disclosing and verifying this data. 
• Award: EPA Reducing Embodied Greenhouse Gas Emissions for Construction Materials and Products Grant Program
• Link: https://www.epa.gov/greenerproducts/grant-program-reducing-embodied-greenhouse-gas-emissions-construction-materials-and

Building Materials Reuse Association

• Selectee: Building Materials Reuse Association (Build Reuse)
• Project Description: "For this project, Build Reuse will act as a pass-through entity to provide sub-awards and technical assistance to support the generation of EPDs for minimally processed salvage construction materials and products across the U.S. All sub-award EPD development recipients will receive LCA education and LCI data collection training and mentorship as a condition of the sub-awards. Build Reuse conducts an annual deconstruction and reuse conference with an average of 300 participants with dedicated tracks devoted to LCA topics. Build Reuse plans to develop a digital LCA-EPD generator software tool, enhance its capabilities as a program operator and create a sub-category PCR for salvaged and reprocessed construction products. The project will generate data on “average” use, quality, service lifespans, past uses and end-of-life in key product group categories for use in product circularity activities such as design for reuse and materials passport development."
• Award: EPA Reducing Embodied Greenhouse Gas Emissions for Construction Materials and Products Grant Program
• Link: https://www.epa.gov/greenerproducts/grant-program-reducing-embodied-greenhouse-gas-emissions-construction-materials-and

Accelerating Equitable Building Decarbonization Throughout the Building Lifecycle (2024)

• Selectee: King County (Washington)
• Project Description: "Funding for this grant will reduce operational emissions from existing multifamily and small commercial buildings, lower embodied carbon emissions in new building construction through government procurement practices and local building codes and create systems to reuse wood at the end of a building’s life to avoid emissions."
• Award: Climate Pollution Reduction Grants (CPRG) Program Implementation grant
• Link: https://www.epa.gov/inflation-reduction-act/king-county-washington

ReUse-NLT (2024)

• Selectee: Lifecycle Building Center
• Project Description: The Lifecycle Building Center team will use salvageable dimensional lumber from Georgia’s film industry to mass produce nail-laminated timber (the “NLT” part of their project name) panels for reuse in affordable housing projects. NLT panel production requires modest capital or facility investment, offers local employment opportunities, lowers the cost of building affordable housing, and diverts material from landfills.
• Award: DOE Re-X Before Recycling Prize, Phase 1
• Link: https://www.energy.gov/eere/ammto/re-x-recycling-prize

Closing the Door Loop (2024)

• Selectee: Doors Unhinged, LLC
• Project Description: The Doors Unhinged, LLC team is pioneering commercial building material reuse. They have developed a process to remanufacture doors—usually discarded in commercial renovation projects—so that the core material is left intact, but the exterior can match new customer specifications, expanding the potential market for refurbished doors. 
• Award: DOE Re-X Before Recycling Prize, Phase 1
• Link: https://www.energy.gov/eere/ammto/re-x-recycling-prize

All A-Board: The Future of Urban Wood Reuse (2024)

• Selectee: Sankofa Lumber
• Project Description: The Sankofa Lumber team is establishing an ecosystem to unlock direct reuse of construction wood waste on their Timber and Wood Recovery Campus in Oregon. The innovation hub that is created will bring together multiple small businesses in a central location to share resources, create business opportunities, and foster workforce development. 
• Award: DOE Re-X Before Recycling Prize, Phase 1
• Link: https://www.energy.gov/eere/ammto/re-x-recycling-prize

Track I: SpheriCity -- Circularity from Molecules to the Built Environment in Communities (2024)

• Selectee: University of Georgia College of Engineering and the University of Pittsburgh’s Mascaro Center for Sustainable Innovation (MCSI) and Swanson School of Engineering
• Project Description: "The newly updated and expanded Circularity Assessment Protocol (CAP) framework will be co-implemented with 11 cities. CAP integrates the open data tool Debris Tracker with data freely available, joining data from nearly 100 countries around the world. The new portal for this project will house the data from Phase I and Phase II communities aiming to foster global dialogue about community circularity and creating meaningful change. 
• Award: NSF's Convergence Accelerator, Phase 2
• Link to award: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2345080&HistoricalAwards=false
• Link to coverage: https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1047109

ID-REUSE (2023)

• Selectee: Material Reuse LLC
• Project Description: "The ID-REUSE platform will provide a time-efficient and robust assessment of existing buildings for salvageable / reusable products and materials, prior to renovation, demolition, and deconstruction. Its innovation will be to build upon expert methods that have been developed for static forms and spreadsheets, combine these with visual and data technologies, and provide a digital database that can be integrated with marketing and reporting."
• Award: US EPA Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) - Phase I
• Link: https://cfpub.epa.gov/ncer_abstracts/index.cfm/fuseaction/display.abstractDetail/abstract_id/11455/report/0

Establishment of a Salvaged Wood Warehouse to Support the Local Circular Wood Economy (2023)

• Selectee: City of Seattle, WA
• Project Description: "The City of Seattle will support a local circular wood economy by developing a salvaged wood
  warehouse to process, store, organize, and distribute salvaged wood. The reuse of salvaged wood, recovered from mostly residential structures as they are being deconstructed rather than demolished, provides many benefits including positive impacts to waste reduction, climate, and air quality. This project will result in 150 tons of wood processed annually."
• Award: US EPA Solid Waste Infrastructure for Recycling (SWIFR) Grant Program
• Link: https://www.epa.gov/system/files/documents/2023-09/City_of_Seattle_SWIFR.pdf

Reuse Warehouse (2023)

• Selectee: City of Austin, TX
• Project Description: "The new Warehouse will accept and redistribute gently used furniture at no cost to nonprofits and their
  clients, with a focus on furnishing the homes of those transitioning out of homelessness. The Warehouse will eventually expand to also accept building materials. An on-site “Innovation Lab” will provide space and infrastructure for innovative programming, including a workforce program in which people with barriers to employment will learn how to upcycle obsolete furniture into new
  pieces."
• Award: US EPA Solid Waste Infrastructure for Recycling (SWIFR) Grant Program
• Link: https://www.epa.gov/system/files/documents/2023-09/City_of_Austin_SWIFR.pdf

A Tale of Two Cities: Optimizing Circularity from Molecules to the Built Environment (2023)

• Selectee: University of Georgia College of Engineering and the University of Pittsburgh’s Mascaro Center for Sustainable Innovation (MCSI) and Swanson School of Engineering
• Project Description: "This project will advance the national health, prosperity, and welfare by using the team?s Circularity Assessment Protocol (CAP) to develop interconnected circular models for waste avoidance and material reuse across four different categories: molecules, plastics, organic materials, and the built environment."
• Award: NSF's Convergence Accelerator, Phase 1 
• Link to award: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2236080&HistoricalAwards=false&utm_medium=email&utm_source=govdelivery
• Link to coverage: https://news.engineering.pitt.edu/a-tale-of-two-sustainable-cities/