The Costs and Savings of Sustainability

By Chris Wedding, LEED-AP, and John Gallagher, PE

“Sustainability” has become a popular design and development goal. The most common definition was established in 1987 when the United Nations World Commission on Environment and Development described sustainability as “development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.”

In the late 1990s, John Elkington, a world leader in sustainable business practices, added the seminal concept of the “triple bottom line” — simultaneous success in financial, social and environmental terms. Today, this concept of looking beyond the bottom line to promote a healthy, productive and meaningful life has entered the business mainstream with leading corporations being recognized in the Dow Jones Sustainability Index.

The concepts of sustainability are also being applied to real estate development to promote construction of environmentally friendly, safe, efficient and equitable communities. Sustainable development begins with site planning, which may include high density, lower impact footprints; transportation alternatives; natural landscaping; the capture and re-use of rainwater; and narrower road widths to reduce stormwater runoff and the urban heat island effect.

Corresponding green building design utilizes natural light, energy efficiency, superior indoor air quality, water efficiency and local building materials. These designs often follow the U.S. Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) guidelines. Leading corporations are utilizing LEED guidelines, and at least seven federal agencies and 54 cities and states have directly (via legislative mandates) or indirectly (using incentives) adopted them.

Applying Sustainability to Brownfields

Brownfield redevelopment, by preventing inefficient greenfield development and revitalizing contaminated sites and blighted communities, is inherently sustainable. But brownfield remediation on average accounts for only 10–20 percent of the value of a site’s eventual buildout. Therefore, 80–90 percent of the investment in a brownfield redevelopment is associated with the built environment (e.g., the infrastructure, improvements and buildings that are eventually constructed).

This presents an opportunity to add greater value by moving beyond environmental cleanup to the broader application of sustainable land planning, design and green building.