Reflecting on 20 Years of Reuse with Construction Junction
Greetings Reuse Fans,
On November 12, 2019, Construction Junction celebrated 20 years of store operations. For better or worse (depends on who you ask, of course), I have been the Executive Director of Construction Junction for every one of those 20 years. When I was hired by the Pennsylvania Resources Council in late 1998 to work on Construction Junction (CJ), it was as an independent contractor with the specific task of finding a location for the operation. I had strong doubts that this gig would extend beyond my task of diligently wading through Pittsburgh’s stock of vacant warehouse buildings to find a suitable launching pad for this idea. I did not have construction or retail experience, so how far could I go with this? The answer is 20 years so far… and still counting!
My commitment to the environment, sustainability and helping to build an organization that creates opportunity, and that people deeply care about, has taken me this far. I am grateful to say there are too many people to thank for CJ’s success, which is, perhaps, the truest measure of this organization’s impact. All of the work that has gone into making CJ a Pittsburgh institution should mean it will endure long after I have stepped away from the ED role.
Organizations serve as a mirror that reflects back to leadership, the best parts of ourselves and the stuff of which we don’t want to be reminded. CJ continues to challenge me on a daily basis. But at the end of the day, what brings me back to this climate control-challenged, gritty warehouse with an impossible to eliminate decades of dust accumulation, is CJ’s staff (past and present), our nonprofit partners and the greater Pittsburgh community’s commitment to reuse.
I will end with a sentiment that was echoed in multiple presentations at national Deconstruction and Reuse conference we hosted in Pittsburgh last week, “It’s not about the stuff, it’s about the people whose lives we impact saving the stuff.”
