Brownfields Tool Kit Terms

The Environmental Law Institute’s Brownfields Tool Kit is a resource designed to help communities play a more pro-active role in brownfields cleanup and redevelopment. Too often, communities are in a reactive role, responding to proposals from developers or local governments. More importantly, large numbers of properties remain underused or abandoned in communities across the country because no one has taken the initiative to address them.

Brownfields Resources

One of the primary goals of the Brownfields Center is to facilitate the exchange of information among groups and communities working on brownfields issues and to increase the ability of community groups to participate effectively in brownfields redevelopment. On this page are links to resources that will aid in the process.

Petroleum Brownfields Resource Center

Nationwide, federal and state brownfields programs are striving to assess, clean up, and redevelop brownfields and vacant properties. However, implementation challenges continue to inhibit the success of these programs, and petroleum brownfields have especially lagged behind their hazardous waste counterparts in terms of the attention received and the degree of revitalization that has taken place.

Brownfields Program

The Environmental Law Institute’s Brownfields Program encourages and supports brownfield cleanups and redevelopment and helps ensure that such efforts protect public health and respond to community preferences. Brownfields—underused or abandoned land that may be contaminated—can scar inner city neighborhoods and restrict economic opportunity. Redevelopment, properly conceived and implemented, can improve public health and the environment, increase investment, and create long-term improvements in housing, jobs, recreational opportunities, open space, and public facilities.

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