Building contractors meet up to get greener

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A grassroots effort in the construction industry will look for ways to improve sustainability.

A grassroots effort in the building industry has formed a group to help companies in the construction industry step up their sustainable practices.

The newly formed Contractor Sustainability Collaborative held its first meeting and is seeking members in an effort to come up with more sustainable practices as a group.

Under intense budget and time constraints, construction contractors find it a challenge to adhere to sustainable practices, for example the handling of waste on site.

"We don't know what kind of waste we're going to have. It's unique from job to job. The material could be old or rotted, there are geographic logistics for each site and often different sub-contractors for every job," said Sara Denniston Eddie, eco-action facilitator for S.D. Deacon Corp., a Portland general contractor. "There is a lot of variability that other industries don't have."

Eddie, who was hired three years ago to focus on sustainability issues at S.D. Deacon, was prompted to pull together an industry collaborative to address the issues after finding that most of the sustainability advice that is available for the building industry didn't work for general contractors.

"A lot of what's out there is naïve and simplistic," Eddie said. "I wanted to get people in the same room who can help each other out."

Alec Mesdag, project manager at Portland-based Oregon Electric Group, was an early recruit to the collaborative.

In recent years, Mesdag worked with the City of Portland's BEST Business Center to improve office operations and in 2009 managed the process of certifying the Oregon Electric's new office space under the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design designation for commercial interiors.

But, he said, there's much more to do, and he's hoping the contractors group will help.

"I want to see what we can do with issues that are unique to contractors," Mesdag said. "Like managing our fleets. What types of thing can we brainstorm together that isn't available in the information that's available to businesses?"

Mesdag would also like to address the issues of energy efficiency and recycling on job sites.

"This is a way to bring a lot of contractors together in what's a competitive business to work on industry-wide issues," Mesdag said.

Shawn Wood, construction waste specialist at the City of Portland's Bureau of Planning and Sustainability said he was pleased to get the call that a collaborative was forming.

"My program is involved in construction and demolition waste recycling, so this group affords us the opportunity to better understand opportunities and constraints in this sector of the industry."

Contractors interested in joining the consortium should contact Sara Eddie at S.D. Deacon via email, sara.eddie@deacon.com.

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