Material Innovation Center (MIC), a project that receives and helps recirculate salvaged building materials for local construction and restoration, has been awarded The 2023 J.M.K. Innovation Prize. From a nationwide search for transformative, early-stage projects, The J.M. Kaplan Fund awards the Prize biennially to 10 innovators in the fields of the environment, heritage conservation, and social justice. Awardees receive a total of $175,000 over three years and join a learning collaborative designed to support them through the challenges of a startup organization.
“Material Innovation Center provides a model for connecting stewardship for the environment with community-building and historic preservation,” said Justin Goldbach, J.M.K. Innovation Prize Program Director. “Like their fellow Prize awardees, they’re poised to reshape our world to be more sustainable and equitable. We are thrilled to support them on that journey over the coming years.”
The J.M.K. Innovation Prize is designed to support nonprofits and entrepreneurs tackling America’s most pressing challenges through social and environmental innovation—focusing in particular on pilot projects, new organizations, or nascent initiatives that involve a certain amount of measured risk, but which may ultimately lead to large-scale, transformative results. This year’s awardees were selected from among 3,209 applications, by far the most participation in the Prize since its inception in 2015.
Construction and demolition debris is the largest source of waste sent to landfills nationwide, with more than double the volume of household trash. Along with significant environmental consequences, dumping high-quality, reusable building materials fuels our dependency on purchasing of new materials and can contribute to the lack of well-maintained, safe, and affordable housing.
“Material Innovation Center serves as the last stop before the landfill,” says Shanon Miller, Director of the Office of Historic Preservation in San Antonio, Texas, who oversees the project in collaboration with Stephanie Phillips, Manager of the Office’s first Deconstruction and Circular Economy Program. When buildings come down in the city, MIC works with contractors, area reuse stores, and individual and corporate donors to take in and store excess woodwork, windows, and other construction materials, like lumber and siding. These resources are then redistributed for free to support local efforts to repair, restore, and extend the lives of homes in the community. By reinvesting these valuable materials into local properties, the Material Innovation Center is helping to increase affordable housing, while also rebuilding a pool of skilled tradespeople.
“We’re working towards a future where construction demolition waste no longer exists,” said Phillips, “Instead those resources can contribute to community value, prosperity, and sustainability.” Material Innovation Center (MIC) is one of several Prize awardees committed to environmental protection and heritage preservation. A report accompanying the Prize, Resilient Leadership in Times of Unrelenting Change, sheds further light on this trend and other findings from this year’s selection process.