What we measure is what we think about, and we think about what we measure.

Most people reading this magazine would agree that brownfield development is good, and sustainable brownfield development is better. So what sustainable aspects of a brownfield development should we measure? The answers depend on your perspective and role. Cities have focused on Smart Growth, urban redevelopment and the number of jobs created. State environmental departments have focused on the number of sites cleaned up and put into productive reuse. Property owners look to quantify liability management. Developers look for return on investment.

Europeans Lead the Way
The Europeans have focused their attention on redevelopment metrics for many years. Over 10 years ago, the Germans developed state-wide economic property development ranking systems that provided incentives for the reuse of infrastructure and taxed greenfield developments. In 2002, the German Cabinet adopted the national Sustainability Strategy. One key goal was related to land management, with a threefold focus: 1) reduce the use of new areas (i.e., avoid greenfields); 2) reuse previously used areas (i.e., urban redevelopment), and 3) create new uses of derelict areas (i.e., redevelop brownfields). The stated metric is a reduction in land utilization of over 75 percent by 2020.

The Briton’s Sustainable Urban Brownfield Regeneration: Integrated Management (SUBR:IM) project team has developed a Sustainability Indicator Framework (SIR) for life-cycle assessment of a brownfield regeneration site. Started in 2003, the team is developing best practice checklists for 63 items related to environmental, social and economic factors organized for private sector, public sector, central government, and community stakeholders. The project is tracking two very large developments: the Thames Gateway, targeted to create 120,000 new homes within 8,900 acres of previously developed land by 2016; and the Greater Manchester project, with over 6,500 acres of previously developed land.

London, in preparation for the 2012 Olympics, has made major sustainability metric commitments, some of which directly relate to brownfield developments. The commitment to “zero waste” games focuses major efforts to divert wastes from landfills and use recycled materials. The basis for this metric is real: the 2004 Youth Games and Athletic Grand Prix both resulted in up to 90 percent of materials recycled and diverted from landfills.

The U.S. Is Catching Up
Back here at home, we are not standing still. The U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), through its Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification program, has taken major steps to quantify sustainability metrics for many site design elements associated with new and existing buildings and sites.

The table on the previous page identifies some potential target metrics for the sustainability opportunities outlined in the first article in this series (“Go lean, go green, go clean!” August 2007 BFN). The USGBC Web site, www.usgbc.org, outlines many design metrics related to brownfields.

Other U.S. programs have focused on state and federal monetary incentives that foster sustainability of site-specific brownfield developments.

For example, Wisconsin provides incentives of $6,000 to $8,000 per job created for brownfield development projects. Other states offer monetary brownfield development incentives. However, owners and developers tend to view incentives as sweeteners rather than the core basis or driver for a property deal decision.

Focus on the Future
U.S. federal, state and local legislative initiatives have not, for the most part, come to consensus with long-term visions, goals or metrics that link brownfield development to sustainability. So what are we really thinking about? When we look at our bank account, are we focusing on our money (incentives) or our wealth (long-term sustainability)?

I encourage the brownfield community to think deeply and consistently about what we measure and how we should measure our activities relating to the sustainable aspects of a brownfield development.

What’s your perspective? Please let us know by e-mailing our managing editor at johns@brownfieldnews.com.

Ken Kastman is a vice president and senior principal engineer at URS Corp. in Chicago.