Equitable & Sustainable Reuse

Equitable and sustainable land reuse projects empower marginalized communities in shaping how land is used to address inequity and support community assets. The goal of equitable brownfield reuse is to identify, clean up, and reuse the vacant and potentially contaminated sites within a community to create usable buildings and beneficial infrastructure, that advance equity, promote health and wealth, and build resilient communities.

Brownfield reuse also provides the opportunity to address and mitigate climate change risks such as flooding and extreme heat, and helps build more sustainable communities by ensuring homes, jobs, amenities, are built where people already are.

In July 2024, CCLR and Groundwork USA published Advancing Equity in Land Reuse: A Practical Guide to Engaging and Activating Community Voices. Also known simply as the Equity Guide, this 27-page toolkit provides strategies and resources to advance environmental justice and equity through the reuse of brownfields.

Sustainable Reuse

Land reuse practitioners are constantly innovating to find, develop and implement new ways to offset the negative impacts generated during redevelopment and bring value to communities impacted by brownfields. This work is vitally important as our society grapples with the challenges of climate change, inequality, and environmental destruction and degradation.

CCLR is here to assist with:

• Training on green revitalization.
• Renewable energy siting and development.
• Understand innovations in the reuse space, such as phytoremediation and mycoremediation.

Resource Conservation:

• Reduce water, energy and materials used during the remediation or construction process.
• Innovative use of recycled or reclaimed materials or bioremediation.
• Design and material use that will conserve resources throughout reuse.

Climate Change Mitigation, Adaptation, and Resilience:

• Minimizing emissions and air pollutants during the remediation and construction process.
• Walkable and transit oriented development (TOD).
• Adapted design: passive cooling and heating, water capture and reuse, and extreme climate resilience for fire, flood, and other natural disasters.

Ecosystem and Land Use Conservation:

• The restoration or improvement of existing open space such as invasive species removal or species reintroduction that improves the quality of open space for humans/habitat.
• Protection of ecosystems through land swaps, protection agreements, or pledges that save greenfields from development in exchange for infill.
• Native support and biodiversity: bioremediation, use of local species, programs to protect or reintroduce local species, education and jobs surrounding the local ecosystem.