Pittsburgh’s climate-friendly plan for condemned homes

To build a house, you need materials such as bricks, tiles, and shingles. But making those materials uses a lot of energy, which generates carbon pollution. 

If a building is later demolished and those materials end up in a landfill, the energy that went into making them is wasted. 

So instead of demolishing condemned homes, the city of Pittsburgh plans to start deconstructing them. In a pilot program, city-owned properties will be taken apart so some materials can be salvaged and re-used.