Demolishing unwanted buildings wastes vast quantities of valuable resources, driving up financial and environmental costs. Deconstruction offers a means of salvaging materials for reuse. It also creates more jobs than demolition, spurs local innovation and industry, preserves local character and heritage, reduces landfill costs and limits the need for virgin (and often carbon-intensive) materials. Even better, cites can introduce policies that foster the repurposing of existing buildings to meet new needs, doing away with the need to remove them at all.  This article explains how.