19 Aug Redevelopment for a New Generation
Reading Time: 3 minutesGoing Beyond the Minimum Environmental Standard
ESA Environmental Consultants has been a devout client advocate since its inception 30 years ago. This has meant the same thing to virtually every one of our clients to date: obtaining site closure as quickly as possible and for the best price. Often, this means gaining closure while leaving behind as much contamination as current regulations allow. But here’s a thought. Maybe it’s time to go beyond the environmental standards when preparing your site for redevelopment. Let’s examine why.
The Brownfield Movement
In places like New Jersey, New York, and every other major American urban center, it is virtually impossible to find a property that has never been developed and potentially impacted by a prior use. Consequently, many previously developed properties that become available are known as brownfields. A brownfield, as defined in New Jersey, is “any former or current commercial or industrial site that is currently vacant or underutilized and on which there has been, or there is suspected to have been, a discharge of a contaminant.” Even former agricultural lands (farms, orchards, etc.) are considered brownfields due to the potential for vestigial contamination from gasoline, oil, degreasers, pesticides, herbicides, and former practices.
Redevelopment regulations were passed in response to the demand for brownfields. These regulations set forth guidance to investigate and remediate brownfields and to prepare them for reuse. And the objective for ESA’s clients has always been consistent: clean the site and do it for the lowest price possible using the latitude contained within the environmental regulations.
But we’re beginning to see a shift in thought with the advent of a new generation.
Enter The Millennials
We now live in a “greener” world. And savvy developers are adapting to this social change. The new generation — affectionately referred to as “Millennials” — is arguably more environmentally and socially conscientious than their predecessors. They also want to enjoy an upwardly mobile lifestyle, much like those before them, but with an added sense of stewardship and responsibility for a world they believe is environmentally imperiled. Though the debate continues on whether the world millennials inherited is better or worse than the world inherited by their predecessors, what matters most is that the millennials will carry forward from the previous generations the responsibility to make things better, and their opinions and influence will increase exponentially into the future.
A Word About Sustainability
Sustainability, in its simplest form, is the relationship between socioeconomics and the environment. Sustainable development is economic development that is conducted without depletion of natural resources. Forward thinking developers are discussing and employing sustainability concepts when designing office buildings, warehouses, and residential properties in accordance with the market demands of this new generation. And, because undeveloped land is impossible to find, these concepts are implemented on properties designated as brownfields. So, depending on the planned use, the developer may opt to remediate the property in accordance with the published standards or, if they are sensitive to new market demands, they’ll clean it beyond those standards. Then they’ll incorporate the latest sustainable and energy-efficient technologies such as solar panels, solar lighting, LED lights, small wind-powered turbines, harvest rain water for reuse, solar-heated hot water, on-demand hot water heaters, innovative convection designs to foster air movement/heating/cooling, rooftop gardens, etc.
Accommodating Green Investors
It remains ESA’s primary mission to advocate for the best interests of our clients by employing practical, cost-saving solutions to their environmental compliance needs. But new conversations are taking place in the markets that our clients now serve. Now, more than ever, the market demand is for clean, safe, and energy efficient working and living spaces that are sited on environmentally clean land. To accommodate this shift, ESA offers a cost analysis that compares remediation in accordance with published standards (that may incorporate mechanisms to legally leave behind environmental impacts that are above the published standards) versus remediation to a more rigorous, “greener” level. In this way, ESA’s clients can make informed decisions that may better accommodate the sensibilities of a new generation of environmentally conscientious investors.