Sustainable Community Initiatives is the creator of a unique program called



Community Forklift is a recovered building materials store that:

• Taps into a vast untapped market of small contractors, home renovation companies, craft workshops, property managers, and do-it-yourself homeowners in the Washington Metro Area who are eager to buy quality construction materials for up to half the price of equivalent virgin materials.
• Replicates the amazing growth and success of dozens of similar ventures from San Francisco to Chattanooga to Baltimore.
• Provides a highly retail-friendly and sophisticated shopping environment.
• Capitalizes upon the tax advantages of being a for-profit LLC operated as a wholly-owned subsidiary of an established not-for-profit organization - thereby able to secure both public and private capital, material donations, and a variety of tax credits.
• Helps develop an industry that elsewhere has been shown to hasten the revitalization of undercapitalized neighborhoods.
• Implements a business plan that has received recognition from the Partnership on Non-Profit Ventures in a national business plan competition.
• Utilizes existing networks of supportive salvage and surplus businesses and agencies within the Mid-Atlantic region.
• Repays start-up loans at or above market interest-rates.
• Trains and employs dozens of hard to place local workers.
• Provides a consignment outlet for existing salvage and deconstruction businesses.
• Provides tax deductions for donations of materials that businesses and home-owners would otherwise need to dispose of at significant cost.
• Is directed by a committed Board of Directors and advised by a business-savvy Board of Advisors.
• Contributes to the reduction of municipal solid waste disposal needs.
• Eventually will serve as an incubator of construction trades start-ups, re-manufacturing businesses, and community arts activities.