This year, we at ReBuilding Center grew to see ourselves as a climate justice organization. Since our founding nearly 25 years ago, ReBuilding Center has prided itself on the amount of material we keep out of landfills. But until recently, we didn’t talk about how reuse and repair can be tools for justice.
The climate justice movement recognizes that the burdens of climate change have largely fallen on poor and marginalized communities where toxins are dumped, air and water are poisoned, and natural resources are depleted. It also demands that those who have caused the greatest climate damage should be most responsible for reducing future harm.
For ReBuilding Center, being part of this movement means our responsibility is greater than championing reuse and repair as climate mitigation strategies. It is also activating the potential of reuse and repair to support people in our community who are most at risk of displacement and harm from the increasing smoke, fire, heat, and cold of our climate crisis should they lose their homes.
Rather than be sold for high prices or dumped in a landfill, reclaimed materials from Portland’s buildings and homes should be available for reuse by everyone, and especially by people who could use them to repair and retain their homes.
With our city’s history of redlining, segregation, and displacement of lower-income households to the outskirts, this is justice work.
We are still keeping tons of material out of landfills, but now we have a greater purpose that centers PEOPLE in addition to climate.
To enact this purpose, over the next year and with your support we aim to:
Offer AFFORDABLE reclaimed materials and home-repair classes to all
Offer FREE CLASSES & MATERIALS to our low-income community members
Offer FREE delivery to those who are transit-dependent
And open our SHOP and soon-to-be TOOL LIBRARY for the community to SHARE.
We do all of this while continuing to be a resource for our entire community of makers and tinkerers and builders and repairers. Everyone is welcome!
This is the final piece of our ReBuilding for Justice Campaign. We hope we have shown you how it all fits together, and how YOU and your support are the most important piece of all, because together is how we will build that better tomorrow.
Please consider joining us today by making a gift to our ReBuilding for Justice Campaign.