By Randolph T. Holhut/The Commons

BRATTLEBORO—The man who helped create the deconstruction industry in southern Vermont is getting ready for the next incarnation of his passion.

Erich Kruger of West Dummerston, the founder of ReNew Building Materials & Salvage in 2005, helped popularize the idea of keeping building materials out of landfills and reusing them for other projects.

ReNew, a nonprofit, had a dual mission: recycling building materials and providing local jobs under its building deconstruction program. It closed the doors to its retail store last month.

But Kruger said last week that the concept of building deconstruction and salvage lives on even as ReNew struggles to reinvent itself. He hopes to start up an employee-owned cooperative called Deconstruction Works, which will pick up where ReNew left off.

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