A re-use it centre for building materials will open in Squamish in mid-May and founder Inis LeBlanc credits her passion for nature as the driving force behind the endeavour.
LeBlanc gave a talk on Monday (March 21) about the new Squamish Rebuild to the Squamish Climate Action Network (CAN) at the group's monthly meeting at Brennan Park.
Rod MacLeod, solid waste project manager for the District of Squamish (DOS), who is working closely with LeBlanc during the centre's start-up phase, was also on hand to discuss DOS support for the project and answer questions.
"I'm definitely very passionate about the environment and the state of our Earth," LeBlanc said. "I had hippy parents and we lived in the woods until I was seven - no running water, no electricity.
"The forest was literally our playground, so I developed a really deep connection with nature and a sense of what nature gives us... and the fact that you have to work to get those things."
After a stint as a wildlife researcher in Alaska, when she lived in a tent for three months, often in remote areas, LeBlanc said she began to look for a job that would help her make the world a better place.
"As time went by, I just became more and more aware of how much we use and how much we waste and it started really bothering me," she said.
In 2009, she found her calling when she learned about The Rebuilding Centre in Portland, Ore., in David Suzuki's book Good News for a Change.
"It was - that's what I want to do," she said. "It was so clear to me."
After overcoming "terrifying" self-doubt with the help of her mother and a life coach, LeBlanc began sharing her idea with interested parties, including the DOS, the Canadian Home Builders' Association, and Squamish CAN.
"So when people hear that passion, I think they get excited with it as well and they want to help you out," said LeBlanc. "Their excitement added to my excitement so it sort of kept that momentum going."
A non-profit organization, Squamish Rebuild will be a warehouse space in the Industrial Park - location still to be announced - that will accept usable construction debris from contractors and people renovating their homes.
Instead of going into the Squamish landfill - which is filling rapidly and does not meet current environmental standards - the donated items will be sold to the centre's customers at discounted prices and the profits from the sales will be donated to other non-profit groups in the community.
"This is a huge success story for us to keep stuff out of the landfill," MacLeod told the assembled group. "There is the equivalent of several of those big Carney's bins - like the big truck bins - of perfectly good lumber that goes in the landfill a day."
"On a big construction project, it's cheaper for them to do that than sort it, but with the price going up, and given an alternative... if you bother to sort it, take the lumber out of it, you could potentially get rid of the whole thing for free. It's a huge incentive."
"I think the added bonus here is that people know that the money that they spend is going back into the community," LeBlanc said. "A lot of people here value that sort of thing and want to support it."
LeBlanc has already begun collecting donations and hopes to open the centre's doors to the public by mid-May,
"They've got re-stores all across Canada and there's all kinds of similar business models in the states as well, doing profit and not-for-profit," she said. "It's definitely proven to be successful."
She cited the Sechelt re-store as an example.
"They opened their doors four years ago and started in a 2,700-square-foot space and are now at 7,000 square feet and their sales have just gone up every year," she said. "They were profitable within three months - the community's been very supportive of them."
Until the Squamish Rebuild website is up and running, LeBlanc can be contacted at [email protected]. For more information on the original Rebuilding Centre in Oregon, go to http://rebuildingcenter.org/.
