Job Training

Neil Joseph holding a deconstructed ornamental brick

In 2010, Greater Greenmount Community Association, in partnership with Safe and Sound and with support from the Baltimore Office of Sustainability, implemented the Barclay Deconstruction Project. Mr. Lenzie Johnson, Jr. of L&J Construction Services, a Barclay-based company, acted as the licensed demolition company and on-site manager.

The project hired nine formerly incarcerated men through Jericho Re-entry and trained them in the technique of hybrid deconstruction techniques, a method of razing buildings that combines using heavy equipment with manual labor. One benefit of this technique is the amount of building material that can be salvaged. In this project 95% (by weight) of the building material was diverted from the landfill and was either reused or recycled, a level that meets LEED Platinum requirements.

On page 43 of its 2010 Annual Report, the Baltimore Office of Sustainability highlighted the Barclay Deconstruction Project as one of its 2010 success stories.