I recently joined my Rubicon® colleagues at the Greenbuild 2019 conference at the Georgia World Congress Center (GWCC) in Atlanta, Georgia, the largest sustainable building conference in the world.

With over 200 sessions, tours, and workshops over the four-day conference, Greenbuild is an annual conference that attracts hundreds of exhibitors and thousands of attendees every year—and for good reason!

This year I joined a list of speakers at the Greenbuild conference (a list that was headlined by former President Barack Obama) to talk about “Zero Waste in Construction,” and how at Rubicon our main focus is on diverting as much waste from landfills and into recycling streams as possible; and that starts, in my view, at the construction and demolition phase of any project.

Rubicon employees at the Greenbuild 2019 conference in Atlanta, Georgia.

In addition to my talk, my colleagues and I also met hundreds of industry leaders at the Rubicon booth, which was located right next to the Construction & Demolition Recycling Association (CDRA) booth.

Observations at Greenbuild 2019

One of my key observations at Greenbuild 2019 was the sheer number of people who were excited to see what’s new in the construction and demolition waste and recycling industry, and the green (sustainable) building industry as a whole.

This is an industry that is full of innovative new ideas and thought leadership about how we should move this industry forward. Rubicon’s Co-Founder and Head of Construction & Demolition Project Solutions, Marc Spiegel, recently wrote a blog post for the Greenbuild website on how C&D and project-based recycling is a cost-saving (not a cost center) that I recommend you read.

There are many open-ended questions in this industry currently, especially when it comes to what constitutes true diversion for different material types. Greenbuild 2019 helped to move this conversation forward in many different ways, and I was excited to be a part of this conversation.

Rubicon’s Total C&D Solution

Rubicon’s mission is to end waste, in all of its forms, by helping its partners find value in their waste streams and confidently execute on their sustainability goals.

In the construction and demolition space specifically, an arm of our business that has seen substantial growth in the last couple of years, Rubicon provides a total solution to our partners, with an eye to getting in on the ground floor at the design phase of a construction project so we can make recommendations to help get our partners from where they are currently, to where they want to be, from a diversion perspective.

Put simply, we work with our partners to make them better—not sell them a dumpster.

If you have any questions, or you’re interested in speaking with me about our C&D recycling solutions here at Rubicon, please reach out to me directly at chris.batterson@rubiconglobal.com or (678) 906 2667.

I thoroughly enjoyed Greenbuild 2019. Thank you to everyone who stopped by the Rubicon booth—I’m looking forward to seeing you all next year at Greenbuild 2020 in sunny San Diego!


Chris Batterson is a Key Account Manager for Construction & Project Solutions at Rubicon. To stay ahead of Rubicon’s announcements of new partnerships and collaborations around the world, be sure to follow us on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter, or contact us today.