Vancouver unveiled the second house in its new pilot project Monday aimed at reducing landfill waste and creating green jobs through deconstruction.

“Deconstruction salvages, recycles and re-uses valuable materials that are typically just taken to landfill from a construction site,” said Mayor Gregor Robertson.

Ian Mass, executive director of the Pacific Community Resources Society, a non-profit that provides social services and skills training to Lower Mainland communities, made an offer to the city. He provided the manual labour while the city helped find homes they can study to analyze how much waste is diverted from the landfill.

Mass said the project will provide employment opportunities to at-risk youth, boost business for the non-profit sector and help the city meet its greenest city by 2020 target.

Twenty at-risk youth were trained to deconstruct two houses as part of the project.

“I came to this program with next to nothing,” said Kaggen Leakey, a student in the program. “The certificates that I got and all the skills I’ve learned and the people I’ve met, everything in this program I can use.”

Pacific Labor, owned and operated by Barry Joneson, was contracted to teach the students deconstruction skills. Service Canada provided $200,000 in youth training.

According to the city, 93 per cent of home materials from the first house did not make its way to the landfill or incinerator.