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TALENT PATROL Chicago���s architectural heritage is a lifelong passion for Elise Zelechowski. Maxwell Street. Having immigrant grandparents who were extremely resourceful, we were very aware of how we used things in our house.��� It took an education in the Pacific Northwest to deepen her sense of sustainability, time on Martinique to better understand society���s relationship to waste, and a stint in Paris to decide there was more to life than American consumerism. She came home and got to work, founding the Rebuilding Exchange, a Chicago-based not-for-profit organization that reclaims and salvages wood, windows, doors, hinges, and Inspiration: more for reuse. Since its inception in 2009, ���Finding successRX has made more than $2 million worth of ful models where reusable materials available to the public. people are able ���What we need to start understanding is that to live and thrive in a way that is those materials are really the natural sustainable.��� resources of tomorrow,��� Zelechowski says. What���s next: ���I ���We���ve extracted so many of our natural want to travel to resources already that the waste stream has northern Europe all of this great material to work with.��� and Egypt. There���s While building owners must pay for an opportunity to see how deconstruction, which is often more timeother countries consuming than straight demolition, they are approach waste able to make up some or all of the cost through recovery.��� a tax-deductible donation to the Rebuilding Exchange. There are other benefits as well. ���When I originally conceptualized this program, I had a very strong commitment to figuring out how this could connect a new, emerging sustainability economy with people who have barriers to employment,��� Zelechowski says. Partnerships with The ReUse People and more recently, OAI, Inc. and The Cara Program, deliver job training programs in field deconstruction, warehousing/ retail management, and furniture making. To date, close to 100 people have graduated from the program, a EVERY DAY IS EARTH DAY FOR THE FOUNDER OF CHICAGOfew of whom RX employs in its warehouse in the BASED SALVAGE ORGANIZATION REBUILDING EXCHANGE. industrial corridor north of Bucktown. BY MELISSA HELLSTERN Zelechowski���s solution for better waste management and community building also includes RX Made, a line of furniture and home goods that turns materials from the lise Zelechowski wants you to rethink garbage. ���In this country, we waste stream into well-designed, well-made benches, tables, and clocks. Recently, the 34-year-old was named a Chicago Community Trust Fellow, have a pretty decent understanding of recycling,��� says the 34-yearold Chicagoan. ���But one thing we still struggle with is what to do which has her even more excited about the future of this green movement. ���I think that there is a whole world of entrepreneurship associated with the waste with the things we don���t want���waste and garbage.��� Early on, she understood the value of repurposed materials. ���I grew up in stream that we haven���t uncovered yet,��� she said. ���There���s a lot of opportunity Chicago. My grandfather was from Poland, and his first job in the US was on here, and we are totally changing the way people feel about waste.��� MA INSIGHT E 62 PHOTOGRAPHY BY PETER HOFFMAN elise zelechowski MICHIGANAVEMAG.COM 062_MA_SP_TP_Elise_Spring13.indd 62 2/11/13 6:02 PM