2000 Annual Report: Market Development

Market Development Topics

Introduction RMDZ RMDZ Loan Program Jobs Through Recycling Private Buy Recycled Priority Materials  Organics  Construction & Demolition  Paper Minimum Content Programs State Agency Responsibility

Priority Materials: Construction and Demolition

About one-fourth of the solid waste stream in California is construction and demolition (C&D) debris consisting of concrete, asphalt, wood, dirt, cardboard, glass, and metals. The IWMB’s need to assist local governments to address C&D debris management became apparent following natural disasters such as the Central Valley flooding in 1996 and the Loma Prieta and Northridge earthquakes. A huge amount of C&D debris was generated in short periods of time. Following these events, the infrastructure to manage large amounts of C&D debris grew to meet the demand and continued to expand as the burgeoning economy increased the demand for more housing and commercial building.

The IWMB recently allocated grant money available to local governments to promote the practice of deconstruction. IWMB staff is currently developing the framework for evaluating applications for the grant. Evidence of established C&D management practices, such as having an existing deconstruction/construction training program, including the Youth Build Program, is one of the criteria that would be considered when evaluating applications.

The Board’s construction and demolition recycling program aims to encourage maximum diversion of C&D debris. Up until 1995, the Board’s chief action to deal with disaster debris was to temporarily waive the maximum daily tonnage limits at local landfills as there were few options for reuse or recycling and all debris from flooding was contaminated and required landfilling. In 1995, the Board approved the “C&D Debris Management Plan” and in 1997 the Board identified C&D debris as a priority material for diversion and adopted the Integrated Waste Management Disaster Plan (publication #310-97-006). 

The Board now provides fact sheets, case studies, processor lists, and reports on C&D material reuse and recycling to the construction and demolition industry, local governments, trade associations, and other interested parties. The C&D recycling program also works closely with the Board’s green building program (see next page) and military base closure groups to provide recycling information and document demolition activities at closing military bases. For more detailed information see the Board’s Web site at www.ciwmb.ca.gov/ConDemo/.

The IWMB is also working with the California State Contractors Licensing Board (CSLB) to include C&D reuse/recycling questions in the contractors licensing exams, and also with the California Department of Transportation to develop specifications for recycled aggregate for use in Caltrans projects and by the greater construction industry. Also, the IWMB has contracted with the Building Industry Institute (BII), the training arm of the California Building Industry Association, to provide construction site waste management concepts to developers, project owners, project managers, and job-site superintendents. Through training classes, seminars, statewide case studies, local industry trade meetings, and trade publication articles, this contract will increase the acceptance and practice of C&D debris recycling and reuse.

Another important C&D debris diversion tool is the careful dismantling or “deconstruction” of a building to recover reusable construction materials. Closing military bases offer a great opportunity for C&D debris reuse and recycling. The IWMB’s involvement with deconstruction began with the Presidio of San Francisco deconstruction projects, which resulted in case studies with photos.

More recently, the IWMB participated in Kaufman and Broad’s deconstruction project at the former Mather Air Force Base in Sacramento. Deconstruction is labor intensive, as most successful deconstruction is done with hand tools and hand labor. The IWMB provided $100,000 in contract assistance to Sacramento Housing and Redevelopment Agency (SHRA) for training of workers to deconstruct obsolete military housing at Mather Field. The deconstruction training involved field training, classroom training, and development of training manuals that can be used by all local governments and contractors to train new deconstruction workers.

• The CSLB has published IWMB-sponsored C&D articles in its newsletter (circulation of 270,000) and regularly provides the IWMB C&D Recycling Program fact sheets at all eight of its testing centers.
• After three years of IWMB support to perform analyses and testing, Caltrans concluded its work and published a new specification for Class 2 aggregate base including material processed from reclaimed asphalt concrete and Portland cement concrete.
• The training of low-income students from the SHRA preapprenticeship construction training program was highly successful and of great benefit to the community.
• The BII construction site waste management training given to developers, project owners, project managers, and job-site superintendents has been enthusiastically accepted by the building industry.

Sustainable Building Program
Buildings account for one-sixth of the world’s freshwater withdrawals, one-quarter of its wood harvests, and two-fifths of its material and energy flows. Building “green” is an opportunity to create healthier and more comfortable buildings, provide long-term cost savings, and demonstrate outstanding environmental leadership. Building “green” also provides a tremendous opportunity to improve the markets for used and recycled-content materials and to divert construction and demolition debris from entering landfills. For these reasons, it has become one of the IWMB's innovative measures to prevent or reduce waste generation.

A green building is a structure that is sited, designed, constructed, operated, and deconstructed in an ecological and resource-efficient manner. Green buildings are designed to meet certain objectives, such as enhancing indoor air quality; using energy, water, materials, and other resources efficiently; and reducing the structure’s overall impact on the environment through its construction and long-term operation. Design and construction practices used in green buildings include:

• Using recycled-content construction materials and products.
• Choosing materials with zero or low emissions to improve indoor air quality.
• Orienting the building to maximize the capture of natural light and solar energy.
• Selecting highly energy efficient mechanical and electrical systems.
• Designing the building to provide adequate space for recycling collection.
• Designing landscaping to conserve water and minimize pesticide use and plant trimmings.
• Employing water efficiency through water conserving fixtures, gray water collection, or water recycling systems.
• Minimizing waste generation during the demolition and construction process.
• Monitoring building performance to ensure systems operate as designed.

High Performance Schools. In 2000, the California Department of Education identified a shortfall of over 430 new schools necessary to accommodate the state’s rising K-12 student population. Over the next 5 years, $3.3 billion per year will be required to meet the new construction ($1.2 billion), modernization ($1.6 billion), and deferred maintenance ($.5 billion) needs in California. As school expenses are on the rise, high performance schools are becoming more widely promoted as cost effective to operate and maintain. In addition, a high performance school is one that is healthy, productive, and sustainable.

Recognized by Governor Davis with his Environmental and Economic Leadership Award 2000, the Collaborative for High Performance Schools (CHPS) was singled out for its achievements in addressing the energy and environmental needs of California's K-12 schools. The IWMB contributed both staff time and money to this collaborative of government agencies, utilities, and nonprofits to complete a Best Practices Manual that includes a unique rating system for K-12 schools which will ensure the “high performance” status. A series of “High Performance Schools Workshops” were held by CHPS to unveil the Best Practices Manual that will assist architects, engineers, and school administrators in designing and building a new generation of schools that offer enhanced learning environments for children. These efforts will result in healthier students whose increased learning and academic performance will be directly reflected in higher test scores.

The state’s largest school district, Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD), will need to build 150 new primary centers and renovate numerous others. In early 2000, over 130 architects, engineers, LAUSD administrators and facility managers, and other building professionals attended a workshop, organized by IWMB staff in conjunction with the Green Building Taskforce, to begin the first step in developing a sustainable schools plan. IWMB staff also presented their technical expertise during this Green Building Design and Construction Workshop. The LAUSD School Board will consider in early 2001 whether to make it district policy to design and construct all future LAUSD schools based on the CHPS Best Practices Manual and rating system.

Sustainable Building Executive Order. Recognizing that many sustainable building measures can be incorporated with minimal increased up-front costs, while yielding enormous long-term net benefits, IWMB staff along with their Green Building Taskforce colleagues drafted an Executive Order for Governor Davis' consideration in 2000. In turn, recognizing that strong leadership must bring together stakeholders and experts across various state agencies and disciplines, the Governor established his own sustainable building goal by signing Executive Order D-16-00 (EO). Under the leadership of the Secretary of the State and Consumer Services Agency (SCSA), the Governor now directs State entities to site, design, deconstruct, renovate, operate, and maintain State buildings that are models of energy, water, and materials efficiency; while providing healthy, productive, and comfortable indoor environments and long-term benefits to Californians.

While the vision as outlined in the Executive Order provides the final desired state of building design and operation in the future, IWMB staff are now taking the lead in developing a “blueprint” intended to map out the course required to advance sustainable building practices throughout State facilities. In creating this blueprint, a multitude of factors that impact building construction, including trends and barriers that impede improvements in the advancement of sustainable building practices, will be considered.

East End Project. IWMB members and staff witnessed their collective efforts come to fruition at the groundbreaking ceremony for the Capitol East End Office Project. East End, as it is commonly referred to, will contain the State’s “greenest” collection of offices constructed thus far, some 1.4 million square feet of space. Sustainable building staff continues to monitor implementation of numerous green building measures that were incorporated in the East End Project’s conceptual design. This includes active participation in the Green Focus Group meetings as well as individual review of design documents, product specifications, integrated waste management plans and other contract documents. One primary goal is to ensure that the Green Building measures (including the recycled-content product specifications) identified in the buildings’ Request For Proposal are not unnecessarily compromised in the final product selection process. It is important to note that, consistent with this sustainable building project, all construction and demolition debris at the site was diverted from disposal to other uses, including the reuse of steel as rebar in the new building.

Modular Furniture Specification. With the addition of the precedent-setting Capitol East End project to the State’s building stock, IWMB staff focused their attention toward ensuring that indoor air quality is maximized while adhering to the mandated use of recycled-content materials in the construction of modular furniture systems to be used in the new office complex. Even though this requirement has been in place for a decade, it has never been addressed comprehensively for office furniture. Staff, along with fellow Green Building Taskforce members, developed a new environmental furniture specification that is receiving positive attention both nationally and internationally.

This environmental specification will be applied to the State’s new $60 million dollar modular furniture contract. The specification includes measures for indoor air quality, recycled contents, low CFCs and HCFCs, waste audits, and task lighting for work stations. An indirect benefit is that the Prison Industry Authority (supplier of an additional $30 million in modular furniture for the State over the next three-year period) has also expressed a desire to meet the Specification for its new lines of furniture. Staff has determined that the specification would significantly improve state agency buy recycled compliance, which could potentially result in a 12 percent annual increase in RCP purchases over three years (i.e., based on RCP purchases reported during fiscal year 1999-00).

California has always been a leader in the environmental arena. As such, it is anticipated that the specification will serve as a model for other government and private sector entities throughout the country.

Cal/EPA Building Green Features. Since the early conceptual design phase of the new Cal/EPA headquarters building, the IWMB has supported an effort to “green” the building beyond the original design. (Green buildings are designed to meet certain objectives such as protecting occupant health, improving employee productivity, using energy and materials more efficiently, and reducing the overall impact to the environment.) Our efforts have included sponsoring a building design review (peer review); and a “building camp” where all building disciplines were brought together to green the project, providing recycled-content product information and model green specifications, and the purchasing of lower cost environmentally friendly carpet for the building. Since moving into the building late in 2000, our efforts have been validated. Recycled-content products used in the building include carpet tile (low VOC), modular furniture systems panel fabric, ceiling tiles, and furniture. Other green features include low/zero VOC building materials, day lighting controls in perimeter zones, motion sensors in offices and conference rooms, low-flow toilets, and photovoltaic panels.