ConstruCycle

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ConstruCycle upcycles the wood used to build simple houses of low income families and transforms it into reclaimed wood furniture, which is sold to make a profit to fund the construction of proper social housing.

Standings & Awards

13 out of 190 in Central & South America
16 out of 268 in Economic Dev
44 out of 935 in Design
55 out of 1066 in Blended
126 out of 4003 Overall

15

VOTES

ConstruCycle

Provide sustainable funding to build social housing at a large scale.

According to United Nations (UN) Habitat, approximately one billion citizens around the world are living in inadequate housing, in urban area slums. Around the world there are many non-profits, large and small, working to solve the lack of proper social housing. Unfortunately these organizations rely on external sources of funding and use most of their time and energy fundraising and reporting back to donors. This takes away valuable resources that could be used in their field of impact, working with communities to bring empowered solutions for their housing problems.

But there is hope! ConstruCycle is a for-profit social business that has developed an innovative system to continuously provide direct large scale funds to NGOs building social housing, by upcycling, creating value and selling resources available within the communities.

According to the UN, 80% of the Nicaraguan population lives on less than US$2 per day, and 43% on less than US$1 a day. Nicaragua has 980,000 inadequate houses, of which 356,000 (2005 National Census) are made with precious wood planks, which unfortunately are badly constructed and lack proper infrastructure. According to the Nicaraguan Ministry of Construction, 52% of houses do not have proper insulation, flooring and roofing, and 45% of all existing houses have a dirt floor. This affects the family’s physical health, mental health, self-esteem and dignity.

Families living under these conditions earn less than $2 a day, making it impossible to afford a home with better conditions. For this reason, non-profits providing social housing for them have to rely heavily on attracting external funding to build, which limits their capability, and consequently their impact in a community. As an example Habitat for Humanity, one of the largest organizations, has only been able to build 5,600 houses in 28 years of operations in the country. We expect to provide enough funding to build the same amount of houses in only 7 years of operations.

The wood these families use to build their houses comes from precious wood trees. This wood is decades old and has a historic character and a unique touch, which makes it very valuable and customers are willing to pay a high price for furniture made from it. ConstruCycle upcycles the wood and transforms it into beautifully designed reclaimed wood furniture, which is sold in high end U.S. stores for profit, where the total sales in 2012 for reclaimed wood furniture totaled $730 million. The generated profit is then channeled through non-profits such as Habitat for Humanity to build a better house made of earth blocks for the family. With the help of ConstruCycle, they will own a home they are proud of, kept healthy and warm in, and able to grow in with one less hindrance and worry.

Support Your Idea Optional (5 - 7 minutes for three uploads)

Supporting Document:

Ricardo Amador-Cveng.pdf

FIVE PROJECT QUESTIONS Required (60 - 90 minutes)

1. What is your innovation?

Our innovation is identifying and adding value to already existing resources owned by low income families and empowering them to proudly purchase the home they dream of and deserve, while increasing the capability of existing NGOs in the area and ensuring the preservation and sustainability of the environment, by using previously cut wood to build high-end designer furniture for profitable funding.

2. Who gains the most?

We will be benefiting families earning $50-$150 a month, living in low income communities in Managua, Nicaragua. These families already own a plot of land with a poorly constructed home, and wish to build a new home with proper infrastructure. Non-profits providing social housing and the environment will greatly benefit from ConstruCycle, because our operations will help fund housing projects in a scalable matter, as well as ensure use of innovative and environment friendly materials.

3. Who pays?

We will sell our high-end designer furniture using a well-positioned social brand in U.S. stores such as Novica to make enough profit to fund the construction of quality homes for poor families in Nicaragua. Our customers will be middle to upper class American citizens. On average we expect to collect enough wood from each house to make and sell 12 coffee tables, making a total net profit of $4,000. We will donate 80% of this money to Habitat for Humanity to fund the construction of a new house.

4. What is your success?

To make both a deeper and greater impact, we want to start small, learn and then scale. In the first year of operations we expect to benefit 103 families, with the same amount of houses. In the 3rd year we expect to help fund a total of 489 homes. By the 5th year of operations, we expect to help provide a total of 1,358 homes, benefiting around 6,791 citizens. By this time we also expect to contribute to the environment by upcycling 2903 pounds of wood (saving around 1,450 trees).

5. How will you do it?

We will survey the number of homes made of wood planks in need of rebuilding: Sign an agreement between the family and the non-profit we are donating the money to: Provide money from our revolving fund for the non-profit to start building immediately after dismantling the old house: Use the wood to make furniture: Export and sell the furniture in the US: With the profit made we recharge our revolving fund to continue funding the construction of new houses.