ABSTRACT
In June 2007, Ted Reiff, co-founder and president of The ReUse People (TRP), sat in his warehouse cubicle and pondered over the future of his nonprofit organization. TRP's profit margins on deconstruction jobs were very high, and supporters of this view felt that TRP should raise the funds for expansion into one new city at a time and focus on profit margins. From the very beginning, Reiff saw logistics as the key to successful deconstruction. TRP's main hurdle in selling services to homeowners was the cost of the deconstruction, which was much higher than demolition. Some industry groups and government agencies lobbied for regulation of the deconstruction industry. Deconstruction services commanded higher profits than certifying third parties, but growth would be slower and the risks much higher. At the rate TRP sold items through retail, Reiff estimated that the warehouse could hold materials from about seven deconstruction jobs per month. TRP did not invest much money in marketing.
