A Survey of Curricula, Centers and Certification Programs in Higher Education

By John Sutherlin

Whenever I have a brownfield question, I have a list of people to call and generally an answer is forthcoming. But this time, resolution has been more elusive. Not that my sources are bad. Perhaps there are no answers at this point. But the questions, at least to me, seem worth asking. Then again, that is what we academics do. We ask questions. 

Where can a person go to study brownfields? Are there brownfield degrees? What pedagogical methods are working best? Is there brownfield literature developing that is beyond government sponsored reports or center studies? Are there textbooks? Is there a peer-reviewed journal that employs rigorous standards like other fields? Interestingly enough, the answers to the above questions require an academic “Phase I assessment” of the intellectual landscape.

What’s Out There?
When I asked Dennis Alvord of the U.S. Economic Development Agency what was available, he responded, “Most of the academic work is in the form of research centers.”

One of those is the brownfield center jointly developed by Carnegie Mellon and the University of Pittsburgh. Another can be found at Rutgers University’s National Center for Neighborhood and Brownfields Redevelopment. Both of these seek to educate the public, raise awareness and conduct research. During the course of such funded or internal research, there clearly is a benefit to those graduate students working with faculty. 

Still, some programs have developed a reputation for specific areas of expertise that are shaping other academic programs. No matter where I asked, three programs were mentioned consistently: University of Louisville (Peter Meyer, environmental economist), State University of New York at Buffalo (Bill Page, School of Planning & Design) and University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (Chris De Sousa, Department of Geography). What is striking about these programs is just how focused they are.

Where would, say, someone interested in creating a financial instrument to partially fund a community center on an old auto fluff site acquire such skills?  

With regard to literature, there are plenty of planning or real estate development journals, but nothing explicitly focused on brownfields alone. The closest thing I have seen is the Journal of Environmental Planning and Management. Again, this includes many relevant articles for brownfield scholars, but is not broad enough to include others, such as real estate or toxicology. Further, an article on rural water management in Spain is just as likely to appear in this journal as one on containing urban sprawl in the U.S.

Also, there are only two major textbooks that I have found: Brownfields: Redeveloping Environmentally Distressed Properties and Brownfields: A Comprehensive Guide to Redeveloping Contaminated Property, the former being from an engineering perspective and the latter from a legalistic angle, but more comprehensive.    

Maybe the subject itself is too specialized to form a complete major or degree. Or, maybe the brownfield industry itself is still evolving too quickly for something as bureaucratically static as a university to respond. However, I think that it is more fundamental than that.

Universities and colleges have not always done a great job of encouraging the kind of interdisciplinary, multi-dimensional thinking that is required for brownfield expertise. We do a good job of educating or training in very specific fields. But many jobs today involve more than that. 

Imagine a brownfield coordinator in any significant city or state that could only think as an environmentalist, engineer or planner. That would leave out several other hats that must be worn: community activist, real estate agent, grant writer and politician or diplomat.

Alternate Options
One suggestion that I got from Charlie Bartsch involved certification programs. “The National Brownfield Association, through their members, could perform this function,” he said. 

I like this idea. The NBA, for example, could hold certification seminars, either in person around the country or online, for those seeking some type of credibility. This could prevent an erosion of the public trust stemming from the growing number charlatans already preying upon communities looking for an expert to assist with, say, grant-writing or Phase I assessments.

Brownfield expertise should be more than just waking up one day and saying, “Hey world! I’m here and I’m a brownfield expert.” That is how reliability gets bruised. Those most in need, such as small communities or tribal governments, may never attempt a brownfield project again. Further, industry regulation of expertise will be much more tolerable than government mandates.

But, this certification would only be after the fact. There still needs to be a formal process for those who are new to the subject, but want to pursue it. The next generation of brownfield experts will initially have fewer battle scars and stories from the 1990s to show and tell. Thus, they will have to rely upon some type of education experience.

Another possibility could be through the Revitalization Institute program called the Academic Network that “brings together universities and colleges (or individual departments within them) that offer curricula or conduct research related to restorative development or socio-economic revitalization.” So far, this effort has brought together universities and colleges across the U.S., such as Clemson, University of Arizona, University of Texas, Montana State University and Harvard Design School. In addition, the Revitalization Institute has partnered with Canada’s Seneca College (Bill Humber, Director, Center for the Built Environment).  

When asked about Seneca’s program, Revitalization Institute’s executive director Storm Cunningham remarked, “They’ve got a four-year degree in Integrated Environmental Site Remediation. So, they’re not only on the leading edge in terms of having an actual degree program in brownfield redevelopment, they’re on the leading edge of the leading edge, due to their focus on integration.”

Cunningham also spoke of how revitalization, as opposed to further green space depletion, has to be learned. “Instead, designers should be learning how to restore what we’ve already got and planners should be trained primarily in revitalization, not new development.”

Maybe the answer to developing a degree program is like brownfields itself: partly economics, real estate, engineering, public planning, urban law, environmental management and toxicology or public health. No doubt as the brownfield industry matures, universities and colleges will begin to see an opportunity to sponsor programs, degrees or certification programs, either by themselves or in conjunction with organizations like the National Brownfield Association or the Revitalization Institute.

Unfortunately, this limited notice from academia may result in fewer talented young people opting for brownfield-related careers. Or, worse, brownfields being littered with so-called experts contaminating projects or spoiling opportunities for authentic practitioners. In any case, a curriculum in the U.S. needs to be developed sooner than later. The component pieces appear to be, if not in place, at least in the same puzzle box. BFN

John W. Sutherlin, PhD, is producer and director of the documentary series “Brownfields: Reclaiming Our Urban Environment.” He is also a professor at the University of Louisiana.