OUR MISSION IS TO GIVE 100-YEAR-OLD BUILDINGS A
BETTER NEXT CENTURY
"The Greenest building is the one already built." -Carl Elefante
200 BLOCK COMMONS
For us, reuse and retrofit of existing buildings offers local opportunities to address climate change impacts. Understanding the life cycle of building materials is an essential first step. When you think about what it took to get those resources out of the ground, construct them into a building and then what it takes to demolish them and bury them in a full-size grave landfill; then go out, extract more materials to come back and build something else in its place, creates a vicious cycle of environmental destruction. Rehabilitation and reuse almost always make the most environmental and economical sense.
The project feature in the video, known as 200 Block Commons , is a testimony on acting locally but thinking globally. It is the restoration of two nationally registered historic buildings that already are producing 70Kw of solar power from their newly installed rooftop arrays. Other sustainable features are a gray water system to be used in the outdoor garden/patio; high-efficiency windows; sustainable flooring and water sense fixtures. All interior and exterior lighting, elevator and H V AC systems will be powered by clean energy increasing the ratio of energy efficiency and significantly reducing the negative impacts of CO2 emissions due to the construction process.
Our hope is to lead the way for the city of Joplin to develop as a green city in the near future. Attracting new investments and residents, increasing the market value of other properties, motivating other property owners to invest in clean energy and green designs. We want this project to play a similar role as the Columbian Building did 12 years ago in downtown, but this time with a green sustainable movement behind.