Sharing spaces and creative ideas…this is what we envision in our warehouse space.
On Thursday afternoon, with help from several volunteers and Rusted Grain ladies, we started construction on the temporary “office space!” Housed in this space will be offices for ReUse Action, Rusted Grain, a yoga instructor and hopefully more! Shared office space is VERY AFFORDABLE. So if you are in need of office space and would like a space where you can share your frustrations and successes of running a small business…please contact us! info {at} reuseaction(.)com
by ReUse Action Staff on January 18, 2012
in Blog, Building Material ReUse, Business, Community Revitalization, Consulting, Demolition, Education, Green Building, Green Demolition, Ideas, Jobs, Net Positive, People, ReUse Industry, Rusted Grain, Services, Young Adults
From our About page:
Question: People ask us . . . Why Do You Do What You Do? (WDYDWYD?)
Answer 1: Jobs!
We’re committed to creating local and green jobs for the Buffalo community. More importantly, we feel these jobs should leverage the waste in our society to create opportunity. We’re interested in a critical analysis of our economy to identify wasteful business practices that damage our communities and our environment, and opportunities that exist for new ventures. We’re determined to find solutions and to implement alternatives that put people to work.
Answer 2: Innovation!
As we look at the world, we see so much that has failed, so much that pollutes and wastes, and so much that just doesn’t make sense. We often ask, “Isn’t there a better way? Has anyone tried something differently and made it work? Can’t we do the right thing for workers, the environment, and communities AND create a modest profit? There are ways and the answers can be found through collectively innovating and acting?”
Answer 3: Training!
We value our role as mentors for young people in our community. We encourage our mentors to not only be good employees with a diligent work ethic and strong skills, but also good people driven by their own interests and passions and committed to service.
Answer 4: Education!
We’re interested in creating and promoting a dialogue. We’re committed to building the reuse industry so that others can benefit from the opportunity of material reuse. We advise and consult with not for profits and municipalities, community leaders and businesses to ensure opportunity is harvested from unwanted structures. Our blog communicates ideas and information we feel is critical to educating the community, promoting more responsible behavior, and expanding the industry of material recycling.
Answer 5: Ecological Stewardship!
Our work as green demolition contractors was born out of the wastefulness of traditional demolition. We shared a growing concern about the material filling our local landfills; the growing environmental destruction that accompanies the logging industry, the source of “new lumber”; and the behavior of many businesses that fails to recognize environmental clean-up and responsibility as a cost of doing business.
Answer 6: Community Building!
We value relationships. We intend, through our work, to bring people together. We focus our work in the MidCity neighborhood, where we plan to be very active with rehabilitation and creative use of green spaces. We believe through collaboration, creativity, and hard work we can rebuild, reinvent, and reimagine a future for our community and create a net positive ecological, economic, and social benefit for everyone who lives and works in the Mid City community.
All photos by Caesandra Seawell, except for photo number 4 (Tree Planting) by Natalie Marino. All Rights Reserved.
So there’s nothing like a visit to Toronto to stimulate your brain cells and get the ideas flowing. As I walked through an area called the Junction on Dundas Street in Toronto, I started thinking about the power and potential of entrepreneurship as an economic booster in Buffalo. Not just plain old profit driven business, but entrepreneurship embraces people and place. Entrepreneurship that doesn’t just take and consume, but that gives back. Business that creates a net positive impact for its workers, the environment, and the community in which it operates. This is what we’re thinking of when we use the term NET POSITIVE and it will also be the main focus of the work of the Net Positive Foundation.
Net Positive is a movement to change the way that we do business in this country, a model for how Buffalo can begin to redefine it’s economy, rebuild neighborhoods, and create meaningful employment for its residents. I don’t think it’s idealist, I think we’re already seeing a shift in peoples consciousness away from the cookie cutter, homogeneous, factory farm, mass produced paradigm of business…to a more local, responsible, ecologically sound, and livable philosophy of business and purchasing.
I started dreaming about an artisan focused business district/incubator that highlighted businesses that represent everything that is great about Buffalo. Shops that repaired architectural windows and reupholstered furniture, galleries and studios that featured the work of mosaic artists and potters, and utilitarian businesses that supported those most in need in our neighborhoods…appliances repair, shoe repair, electronics repair, etc. Businesses that are creative and create wealth, curb consumption, and build on our strengths as a community.
This idea transported me back to China, to the town of Lijiang that I visited in 2000. As I walked the streets of Lijiang and glimpsed into the lives of our neighbors a half a world away, I witnessed the skills of the people and an economy that thrived to meet the needs of the local population.
The great thing about Toronto is that its jam packed with people, the mere scale of people and ideas seems to nurture and promote innovation and ideas. If you’re ever bored, visit Toronto and spend the day “mining for ideas” like I did yesterday. Then bring them back to Buffalo and be part of a movement to restart the engine of responsible business here in Buffalo, NET POSITIVE business. So many possibilities, limitless potential.
