"Greening Brownfields" -- New Book by Will Sarni, CEO of Domani Consulting

"Green Brownfields: Remediation Through Sustainable Development," combines my first 20 years of experience as an environmental consultant with my last 10 years as a sustainability consultant. This book combines these two phases of my career.

The first portion of my career focused on the investigation and remediation of contaminated properties (brownfield sites). The last ten years I have focused on helping global companies develop and implement sustainability programs; global energy, carbon, water and sustainable development initiatives.

The greening of brownfields is a movement that has been in the making for the past several years and is essential the result of a perfect storm of business opportunity and public policy. The reasons for increased brownfield development are multifold: there are fewer “clean” undeveloped urban properties; remediation technologies are becoming cheaper and more predictable (in terms of achieving clean up goals within a specified time frame); and state and federal incentives are in place to encourage redevelopment.

The bottom line is that while the redevelopment of brownfield sites creates value from a liability (“asset conversion”), much greater value can be created if the site incorporates sustainable land use and green building practices. Employing sustainable practices creates greater brand value (especially for a corporation redeveloping a brownfields site) and vastly improves operating efficiency over the life cycle of the development.

A macro view of what has transpired over the past several decades in how developers, communities and industries have moved from the “clean up” of contaminated sites to sustainable development of contaminated properties is illustrated below. Along with a move towards incorporating sustainable development practices into cleaning up contaminated properties increased value is created in the process.

The trends that are driving the greening of brownfield sites include a mix of increased urbanization, increased awareness of the benefits of green building practices and resource scarcity. [For those who want to look more closely at this excellent book, click here --DS].

Despite the impact of the “great recession” on the real estate market we can expect to see a return to increased brownfield redevelopment and a greening of these projects over the next several years. It just makes business sense to turn a brownfield liability into a (green) asset.

--Will Sarni
Founder and CEO of Domani Consulting