Brownfields Redevelopment And The Quest For Sustainability

Examines the role that brownfields redevelopment is playing and can play in our quest for sustainability, focusing on efforts in the US and Canada. This book looks at how brownfields are used as spaces for developing an array of residential, recreational, and employment-oriented projects that have breathed new life into the urban environment.

While industrial and chemical innovations have contributed extensively to human advancement, the darker part of their legacy has been the hundreds of thousands of polluted sites left behind. Governments at all levels have rallied to support the remediation and reuse of these land resources and put many of the nation’s brownfields back into productive use. This book presents two dozen brownfield projects in the United States that have incorporated sustainability, highlighting project features, best management practices, and lessons from the field regarding the underlying policies and practices that enabled these projects to be completed or, in some cases, stalled, altered or abandoned. The case studies represent an array of brownfield projects that aimed to go beyond conventional practice and include a range and variety of end uses (e.g., corner gas stations, industrial, office, residential, brightfields, green space, mixed-use, and transit-oriented developments). The cases investigate site histories, planning and development and examine sustainability characteristics to understand how projects overcame the barriers to brownfield reuse and the implementation of sustainability features and derive a series of lessons learned, including innovative policies, programs, and/or funding mechanisms that helped make these projects work. Sustainable Brownfield Development will be of interest to developers, planners, consultants and community representatives interested in environmental policy, urban planning, community development, ecological restoration, economic development, and parks planning by providing direction and inspiration for those eager to erase the blight of the past and build a more sustainable future.

Transform brownfields into green development projects This forward-looking resource discusses sustainable remediation methods for converting a land liability into a high-value asset. Greening Brownfields presents best practices and creative thinking on how to increase property value by viewing contaminated sites as lucrative opportunities. The book covers global trends and business drivers related to brownfields and green development, and outlines U.S. and international guidelines and incentive programs. Detailed case studies of worldwide brownfield redevelopment initiatives are included. Greening Brownfields covers: U.S. Environmental Protection Agency U.S. Green Building Council Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) BRE Environmental Assessment Method (BREEAM) Regulations and financial incentives Frameworks for integrating all phases of brownfield redevelopment Sustainable land planning and land use One Planet Living Green building

While industrial and chemical innovations have contributed extensively to human advancement, the darker part of their legacy has been the hundreds of thousands of polluted sites left behind. Governments at all levels have rallied to support the remediation and reuse of these land resources and put many of the nation's brownfields back into productive use. This book presents two dozen brownfield projects in the United States that have incorporated sustainability, highlighting project features, best management practices, and lessons from the field regarding the underlying policies and practices that enabled these projects to be completed or, in some cases, stalled, altered or abandoned. The case studies represent an array of brownfield projects that aimed to go beyond conventional practice and include a range and variety of end uses (e.g., corner gas stations, industrial, office, residential, bright fields, green space, mixed-use and transit-oriented developments). The cases investigate site histories, planning, development and examine sustainability characteristics to understand how projects overcame the barriers to brownfield reuse and the implementation of sustainability features and derive a series of lessons learned, including innovative policies, programs, and/or funding mechanisms that helped make these projects work. Sustainable Brownfield Development will be of interest to developers, planners, consultants and community representatives interested in environmental policy, urban planning, community development, ecological restoration, economic development, and parks planning by providing direction and inspiration for those eager to erase the blight of the past and build a more sustainable future.

This book focuses on the problems facing the public and private sectors and the engineering and scientific communities in terms of the decrease of available new land for development purposes. Given the economic and social benefits of brownfields redevelopment, there is a need for guidance on processes that ensure the acceptability and therefore viability of such redevelopment. The preparation of the guidance requires further research as well as the sharing of information, lessons and experience among experts in this field. Featuring papers from the Third International Conference on Prevention, Assessment, Rehabilitation and Development of Brownfield Sites, the text will be vital to practitioners and businessmen in industry and commerce as well as those in research organisations interested in the problems facing the prevention, assessment, rehabilitation and development of brownfields. The papers published in the book are grouped into the following sections: Development Issues; Environmental Assessment; Risk Assessment and Management; Cleanup Methodologies; Case Studies; Community and Public Involvement; Lessons from the Field; Modelling and Assessment; Monitoring of Contaminated Sites.

The environmental legacy of past industrial and agricultural development can simultaneously pose serious threats to human health and impede reuse of contaminated land. The urban landscape around the world is littered with sites contaminated with a variety of toxins produced by past use. Both public and private sector actors are often reluctant to make significant investments in properties that simultaneously pose significant potential human health issues, and may demand complex and very expensive cleanups. The chapters in this volume recognize that land and water contamination are now almost universally acknowledged to be key social, economic, and political issues. How multiple societies have attempted to craft and implement public policy to deal with these issues provides the central focus of the book. The volume is unique in that it provides a global comparative perspective on brownfield policy and examples of its use in a variety of countries.

The fully revised new edition of this textbook presents a well-balanced set of economic development financing tools and techniques focused on our current times of economic austerity. While traditional public sector techniques are evaluated and refocused, this volume emphasizes the role of the private sector and the increasing need to bring together different techniques and sources to create a workable financial development package. The chapters address critical assessments of various methods as well as practical advice on how to implement these techniques. New chapters on entrepreneurship, the changing nature of the community banking system, and the increasing need for partnerships provides critical insights into the ever-evolving practice of economic development finance.