Katlyn Cotton doesn’t usually encourage tearing buildings apart. But when the city of San Antonio reached out to her firm, Washington, D.C.-based PlaceEconomics, for help conducting a study on deconstruction — a process of carefully pulling apart buildings to preserve their component materials for eventual reuse — Cotton, who usually works on historic preservation, realized how much potential these old buildings have for a second life. And the vast majority of that potential is being wasted. “I think for the sake of our future on this planet, we should be doing it to just, like, almost every building,” Cotton said. 
From Palo Alto to Pittsburgh, U.S. cities that are looking to move aggressively to promote green jobs and infrastructure are showing more and more interest in deconstruction, which could unlock a new source of revenue for construction and demolition firms while simultaneously cutting into the enormous carbon emissions created by…  Read the full story here. | 
