VANCOUVER — Light House, an organization focused on advancing circular practices in the built environment, has launched the Building Material Exchange Marketplace (BMEx Marketplace).
The free online business-to-business marketplace allows businesses across Vancouver Island to list and acquire excess and salvaged building and/or design-related materials from reliable, local sources, explains a release.
“BMEx Marketplace is built on Rheaply, a B2B reuse platform that tracks weight diverted from landfill, cost savings and carbon avoidance. It improves upon tools like Facebook Marketplace and Craigslist making it exclusively set up for organizations and their underused construction, building and design-related excess materials,” explained Gil Yaron, managing director, circular innovation with Light House, in a statement. “Vancouver Island is grappling with burgeoning landfills, increased waste management costs and efforts to foster local economic development. Our aim is to reduce waste management costs and minimize the volume of construction material sent to landfills while supporting the creation of a circular economy and quality local jobs.”
Surplus or underused building materials can be repurposed by organizations interested in reuse and salvage and it is not limited to contractors and architects. BMEx encourages the industry to think outside the box to identify new markets for these materials.
“As a commercial design and build company, we are very eager to be involved with the Building Material Exchange Program,” said Ann Squires Ferguson, CEO of Western Design+Build. “We are often faced with leftover site materials, products, discontinued items, and samples that unfortunately, have previously had to end up in the landfill. The BMEx Marketplace provides us the opportunity to ensure usable materials stay out of the landfill, as well as saving our clients money on dumping costs, and creating lasting connections in the local community. We plan to introduce our subtrades and suppliers to this program as well. The success of BMEx will be reliant on all of us contributing.”
The marketplace is supported by the Capital Regional District, Regional District of Nanaimo, Cowichan Valley Regional District, and the City of Nanaimo.
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