"don't be a virgin."

I believe that everyone has their own way of conserving. For some it may be pure recycling, for some it may be getting the most eco-friendly, sustainable project. The example that comes to mind is with cars. It is a debate I have often had. Should you upgrade to the Prius or continuing using your 1995 Pathfinder and keeping it from being one more unused metal in a dump? They are arguments to be said for one day, but reuse is the conservation I keep coming back to. In all areas, personally and in my career, I see reuse as the most effective conservation. In architecture, that is repurposing old buildings. While this is not always the situation, it seems absurd to build a LEED certified building out of virgin materials rather than making due with the materials that have already been "commissioned," whatever level of "green-ness" can be reached. My motto has become "don't be a virgin," i.e. don't use any virgin materials (or at least as few as is possible).  

An organization that completely follow this reuse policy is Pop Up Repair. According to their mission statement:

Pop Up Repair is an intervention in the cycle of use-and-discard consumerism. For four weeks in June 2013, a group of theater artists activated a storefront repair shop, fixing household objects brought in by members of the community. The pop-up shop is the experimental first step in a larger research project investigating our relationships with the objects we use every day: what they mean, what they’re worth, and why we repair and reuse instead of buying new.

Essentially, its a brainstorm of skills, a charrette for the everyday. The work on a "pop-up" basis, so keep up with their website, and if you live in New York or Philly, use and reuse them!