Michele Hobbs

When Michele Hobbs founded Knox Joseph Distillery, she not only wanted to build a public space and product that would entice people to explore the rest of OTR, but she wanted to do it in an environmentally responsible way.

That’s why Hobbs is thrilled she crossed paths with Building Value’s Chris Miday, a Deconstruction Manager who has been with Building Value for more than 15 years.

Hobbs contracted Building Value to provide demolition services. Three important things from resulted from that relationship:

• Her demolition expenses using Building Value fit well within budget, even saving her a bit.
• She knew the unwanted materials would steer clear of the landfill by being repurposed

She encountered Building Value’s Northside retail store, where she has been a customer since purchasing reclaimed items for her distillery. There, she repurposed a cool barn door from the BV ‘bone yard,’ which had been collected from demolition of the zoo’s old hippo habitat. It’s now the door to the stage at Knox Joseph.

But Hobbs isn’t smiling at everything. She said more people need to help groups like Building Value and get involved in the reusability efforts in Cincinnati.

“I wish more people knew about the products and services that BV offers. The more people understand how easy recycling and reusing is, the better off we’ll all be,” she said.

Hobbs says all it really takes is an effort to sort items before you throw them away. Building Value and other local recyclers will do the rest. “It really takes very little effort to do what’s right for our environment.”