Innovation

Rebuilders Xchange is a circular economy marketplace for salvaged construction materials founded by Jessica Davis in Cleveland, Ohio, in 2012. RBX rescues usable building materials from demolition and renovation projects that otherwise would have ended up in a landfill or being sold for scrap. The company processes and resells the materials to builders, designers, contractors, developers, and homeowners through a retail warehouse and online marketplace. Customers visit RBX to purchase reclaimed doors, fixtures, hardware, and architectural elements. RBX makes salvage materials searchable and sortable in an online marketplace, enabling materials that would otherwise be waste products to become available resources for future projects.

RBX's business model presents an economic incentive to rescue construction materials instead of sending them to landfills. By accepting building materials on consignment RBX allows anyone who has access to materials—contractors, laborers, homeowners, etc.—to drop materials off at RBX and share in the resale profits. RBX also developed systems and technology to track and operate on a continuously updating inventory of unique products. Finally, RBX operates a fabrication space called the Fab Lab where RBX customers can repair, modify, and break down salvaged materials to fit their needs.

RBX enables entrepreneurs to build businesses around waste streams that would otherwise end up in landfills. RBX helps combat climate change by reducing construction waste and increasing the life cycle of building materials (SDG 12: Responsible Consumption and Production, SDG 13: Climate Action). RBX's model allows for increased economic opportunity for local workers and entrepreneurs (SDG 8: Decent Work and Economic Growth) and encourages more sustainable cities and neighborhoods (SDG 11: Sustainable Cities and Communities).

Inspiration

Founder Jessica Davis attributes her inspiration for Rebuilders Xchange to growing up around reuse. In an interview with Davis, she said that she grew up in rural areas around people who reused materials rather than throwing them away. “In my family growing up and the community I was around, a lot of things had multiple lives and you kind of made do with what you had,” Davis said. She recalled how “things were constantly being reused” and how it impacted how she thought about “something someone else was just going to throw away.”

Davis’s time in service with AmeriCorps and working at a startup also contributed to her vision for RBX. While working with Habitat for Humanity, Davis was able to see the impact that reusable building materials had on affordability and how they helped communities. Working at Tremont Electric, a startup for renewable energy technology, gave Davis experience in entrepreneurship. Through both of these organizations, Davis was able to find a way to merge her passions for entrepreneurship and the community-built environment.

Rebuilders Xchange was founded as a result of Davis’s passion for the community and reuse. She wanted to create a business that would help facilitate community access to reusable materials. Davis said RBX was built with the intention of “creating an economy by bringing in materials and keeping it out of a landfill.” With RBX, she wanted to provide people with the opportunity to earn money while also keeping materials out of landfills.

Overall impact

The business impact driven by the idea at Rebuilders Xchange is tangible for both the company and communities it serves, as well as the planet. In the short-term, RBX allows contractors, property owners, and laborers with access to potential salvageable materials to bring unwanted goods to their marketplace instead of sending them to the landfill. There, builders, designers, and homeowners shop for affordable reclaimed materials to use on fixer-uppers and DIY projects. Founder Jessica Davis says that because thousands of customers come through RBX with the common purpose of building or creating something new, the marketplace has cultivated a strong community centered around reuse.

Professionals who have materials to sell through the marketplace are given opportunities to make money that they may not have found elsewhere. Davis mentioned that many laborers with access to materials on job sites have made “thousands of dollars” supplementing their income by selling recovered materials at RBX. One man in particular came to RBX with materials he found on a job site and made just under $30,000 over the course of a few years through sales. By allowing individuals to profit from goods that would otherwise be trashed or sold at scrap prices, RBX supports Goal 8 of the UN Sustainable Development Goals: Decent Work and Economic Growth.

Another positive impact of RBX comes in the form of environmental sustainability. Rebuilders Xchange’s business model allows for building materials to be used to their fullest, reducing waste in the construction industry. Keeping salvageable materials out of landfills and encouraging citywide reuse of architectural resources supports SDG 12 and SDG 11. As the company continues to grow and scale its impact by developing more efficient systems and looking for new locations, the model can be replicated in other cities.

Business benefit

Rebuilders Xchange enjoys business advantages because they operate within a space that had almost no organized resale value before their market was established. Because RBX built a marketplace which allowed contractors, homeowners, and construction workers to deposit salvaged materials in exchange for a percentage of the resale price, they have been able to stock unique architectural materials. Essentially, RBX can make money selling building materials that would otherwise be sitting in a landfill or resold for minor scrap value. Over time, RBX accumulated repeat customers including builders, designers, and homeowners who know to consistently check RBX for affordable, unique reclaimed building materials.

Since the business took measures to create operational systems and use pricing technology, RBX can run leaner than most of their competitors. Many other salvage yards and antique building material providers are structured manually, and lack RBX’s cohesive approach. Davis stated that RBX uses data and predictive pricing to change the resale values of materials based on trends in buyer interest. Through this practice, RBX can keep a fluid inventory and automate portions of the pricing model to benefit the customer. RBX grew their business further by creating the Fab Lab, which is a fabrication laboratory that allows people to repair, alter, or retrofit materials they find on the RBX marketplace. Davis projected that the Fab Lab makes up about 30 percent of RBX’s business, providing another stream of revenue.

RBX has positioned themselves to grow into the future because they have established systems and services that could support multiple locations. The physical act of salvaging building materials would need to happen on a more local level in different cities. If RBX can distribute to more localized sites, then they can continue to disrupt the construction industry by reclaiming and resale materials.

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Social and environmental benefit

RBX creates a more sustainable world by building a circular economy for building materials in Cleveland and the region. When buildings are constructed or demolished using traditional methods, tons of reusable material often end up thrown away or sold for marginal scrap value. RBX disrupts that system by allowing contractors, owners, and tradespeople to sell reusable building materials to RBX, which resells those materials to builders, designers, and homeowners who will reuse them. RBX keeps usable doors, fixtures, hardware, architectural elements and other materials out of landfills and in circulation longer.

RBX also provides economic opportunity for the local community. Most RBX workers are paid a percentage of the resale value of the materials they supply to RBX. By incentivizing people to go into buildings and recover as many reusable materials as possible, RBX empowers workers to view salvage materials as an asset rather than trash. RBX also allows its customers to afford building materials they may not be able to buy new for their design or renovation projects.

Over time, RBX will help create cities that use resources more responsibly. By allowing the construction industry to reuse materials rather than buy new ones RBX’s circular marketplace encourages people to reimagine how we use and reuse resources. RBX’s impact on the world aligns with multiple United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, specifically SDG 11: Sustainable Cities and Communities and SDG 12: Responsible Consumption and Production.

Interview

Jessica Davis, CEO