My name is Jean Choi and I am the Project Manager for the Brownfields
Program, one of five programs areas within Sustainable Conservation. We are
a nonprofit environmental conservation organization with a project-specific
focus dedicated to achieving conservation through innovative strategies
which incorporate the incentives and capabilities of the private sector.
Since its inception, our Brownfields Program has expanded into two separate
but complementary and interdependent components. The first component
includes remediation and development of a specific demonstration project
from which replicable models can be produced. The redevelopment of an area
allows for the testing of theories and methodologies and will provide proven
examples which feed directly into brownfield policy and program development.
This "learning laboratory" approach centers on providing "on-the-ground"
solutions and information which are instrumental in further defining the
obstacles to, and requirements for, a successful brownfields redevelopment
It is from this learning laboratory that we have recognized the need for the
second component of our brownfields program: a business plan for a full
scale, non-profit brownfields developer. This formal investigation and
analysis will evaluate the need for and the feasibility of full scale
non-profit developer(s) solely dedicated to brownfields redevelopment. This
analysis is being driven by our belief that successful brownfields
redevelopment (in terms of economics and sustainability) for the vast
majority of sites (those where there is little private sector interest and
marginal economics) will probably occur only if the effort is led by
dedicated non-profit developers, with appropriate resources, whose mission
includes both maximizing the social benefit associated with brownfields
development and finding a "bottom line", economically sustainable solution.
If you have questions and/or comments please feel free to contact me at:
Jean W. Choi
Sustainable Conservation
45 Belden Place, 3rd Floor
San Francisco, CA 94104
phone: (415) 288-0380
fax: (415) 288-0389
email: suscon@igc.org (please put my name on the subject line)
website: www.suscon.org