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BrightFields is honored to be part of the team working to bring automobile manufacturing back to Delaware, as detailed in the Fisker article on delawareonline.com.  BrightFields is especially excited that Fisker’s new concept car, the Karma is a solar/electric/hybrid vehicle employing many exciting new green technologies. “Karma drivers who charge their car overnight and commute less than 50 miles a day will achieve an average fuel economy of 100 mpg (2.4L/100km)” according to the Karma website. 

Henrik Fisker speaking at a New Castle County Chamber of Commerce Annual Dinner:

Henrik Fisker

Photo: Fisker Automotive

Fisker Automotive Website

The National Brownfields Coalition commends the Obama Administration for its commitment to reclaiming and revitalizing brownfields, supporting sustainability, creating good jobs, and addressing the needs of underserved communities with the release of the President’s FY 2011 Budget.

“In today’s economic climate, the President’s Budget reflects a necessary focus on creating healthy, economically viable communities, particularly in those distressed neighborhoods that most need assistance,” said National Brownfields Coalition Coordinator Evans Paull, Senior Policy Analyst at Northeast-Midwest Institute and Principal of Redevelopment Economics.

President Obama’s budget provides $215 million to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to expand brownfields cleanup and integrated area-wide planning activities. This $40 million increase is aimed at initiating 20 community-level brownfields projects that will promote area-wide planning in under-served and economically disadvantaged communities.

The President’s Budget for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development also creates important new funding sources. The Catalytic Investment Program, aimed at funding strategic projects that will stimulate economic vitality in underserved communities, includes a focus on reclaiming vacant properties. Brownfields projects are also expected to be among the eligible uses for grants made available through HUD’s Sustainable Communities Initiative.

Brownfields advocates especially laud the administration’s focus on area-wide planning, a process that helps communities living with multiple brownfields sites address those sites strategically, including exploring the conditions fueling abandonment and deterioration. The process also gives community residents, whose lives have been most impacted by contamination and environmental hazards, a seat at the planning table. By looking at neighborhoods as a whole, area-wide planning helps produce the most productive, innovative, and appropriately scaled end uses for brownfields, all while mitigating historic and future environmental injustices.

“With its focus on area-wide efforts, its request for continued funding for sustainability initiatives, and its new proposals for economic development gap financing, the President’s budget lays out a solid strategy for communities to take advantage of the evolving brownfields redevelopment market,” said Charlie Bartsch, Senior Fellow at ICF International.

What’s more, this funding comes at a critical time.

“Federal brownfields funding is crucial to sustainable redevelopment of neighborhoods distressed by environmental contamination and the compound problems of high unemployment, the credit crisis, and foreclosures. Timing is everything. Communities need this help now,” explains Deeohn Ferris, Executive Director of the Community Revitalization Alliance.

Indeed, research confirms that the cleanup and redevelopment of vacant and under-utilized brownfield sites can help create the jobs needed to revive these communities, and that public investment in brownfields is a cost-effective jobs generator. A 2008 report by the Northeast-Midwest Institute found that $10,000 to $13,000 in public investments in brownfields creates/retains one job. On average, each brownfield site has the potential to create 91 jobs.

In addition, as President and CEO of Smart Growth America Geoff Anderson explains, an economic recession makes brownfields a smart investment. “This is the perfect time to clean up brownfields.  Brownfields have a longer lead time before they are development-ready, and investing now will mean that we’ll have more sites ready to accommodate growth in a responsible and sustainable fashion when the real estate market is ready to grow again.”

The National Brownfields Coalition includes national organizations, as well as local and state government, nonprofit, and private organizations, that represent diverse economic, community, and environmental interests. Members include: The U.S. Conference of Mayors, National Association of Counties, Northeast-Midwest Institute, International Economic Development Council, National Association of Local Government Environmental Professionals, Goldstein Brownfields Foundation, Colorado Brownfields Foundation, International City/County Management Association, Local Initiatives Support Corporation, National Association of Towns and Townships, National Association of Development Organizations, International Council of Shopping Centers, Community Revitalization Alliance, National Brownfield Nonprofit Network, Center for Creative Land Recycling, The National Conference of Black Mayors, The Real Estate Roundtable, Commercial Real Estate Development Association, Environmental Bankers Association, National Brownfield Association, Cherokee Investment Partners, LLC, Trust for Public Land, Smart Growth America, Scenic America, the City of Houston, the City of Rochester, the Florida Brownfields Association, Minnesota Brownfields, Central Florida Regional Planning Council, and the Saint Paul Port Authority.

 The actions taken by the Coalition are posted on the Northeast-Midwest website at:  http://www.nemw.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=88&Itemid=68

The Environmental Business Journal in partnership with Zweig White, has ranked BrightFields as one of today’s leading environmental consulting firms, number 13 on its 2009 list of the Best Environmental Service Firms to Work For, on the basis of employee surveys.

The Award

Firms on the second annual “Best Environmental Service Firms To Work For” list ranged in size from 18 to more than 1,000 employees. Seasoned firms, to firms in business for just short time, applied. Locations and services offered are across the board. The majority of these firms are growing and profitable, despite the current economy.

Every architecture, engineering, and environmental consulting firm leader knows that talented, motivated, and dedicated personnel are the key to a firm’s success. The challenge, however, is not only attracting the best personnel, but also retaining, motivating, and cultivating that talent amidst the ongoing reality of position eliminations, salary freezes, and travel restrictions. In these challenging times, retaining and even more importantly motivating the best and the brightest talent requires firm leaders to continue to take the extra steps to create a great workplace-from compensation, benefits, recognition programs, training, social atmosphere, and firm culture that continues to inspire ongoing commitment.

“We are very proud of this recognition.  As a service company, our employees are our lifeblood. As a professional services firm, our product is our ingenuity, strategic thinking and customer focus. Anyone can collect a sample or drill a well, but we try to keep all of our team focused on what our client truly needs and how to get it to them.  I would like to thank all of our employees for the trust you show in us, “ said Mark Lannan, Principal.

Working with Washington-based art conservator Catherine Magee, BrightFields earlier this year confirmed that the objects were contaminated with asbestos. Magee then cleaned the objects, using a variety of techniques, in order to make the objects safe for human contact while preserving the integrity of the artifacts. To conduct the sampling, dust collected from each of the objects was sent to a laboratory for analysis, which confirmed that they had been thoroughly decontaminated.

The National Law Enforcement Museum

The mission of the National Law Enforcement Museum (http://www.nleomf.org/museum/) is to tell the story of American law enforcement through exhibits, collections, research and education. The Museum dynamically engages the broadest possible audience in this story in an effort to build mutual respect and foster cooperation between the public and the law enforcement profession. By doing so, the Museum contributes to a safer society and serves to uphold the democratic ideals of the U.S. Constitution.

Piece of one of the airplanes that flew into the WTC.

Partially incinerated handgun.

The Award

Eligibility rules for The Zweig Letter Hot Firm List state that firms must be based in the U.S. or Canada and derive the majority of their revenue from the practice of architecture, engineering, planning, environmental consulting, design and construction, or allied disciplines. For the 2009 list, eligible firms had to be in business as of Jan. 1, 2005, and had to have 2005 gross revenues of at least $1 million. 

Since it was first created in 2000, the Hot Firms List has taken special care to recognize both small firms and large firms for their successes. A $5 million firm may have an easier time doubling in size than a $5 billion firm, while, at the same time, growing by an additional $1 billion is a more feasible goal for the large firm than the small firm. To alleviate this problem, firms’ dollar growth and percentage growth are weighed equally to give both small firms and large firms an opportunity to make the list. Each firm is assigned a dollar ranking and a percentage ranking, and then the two numbers are combined for a total score. The 200 firms with the best combined scores are the winners on The Zweig Letter Hot Firm List.

“If you want to find out which companies are going to change the world, look at the Inc. 5000,” said Inc. Editor Jane Berentson. “These are the most innovative, dynamic, fast-growing companies in the nation – the ones coming up with solutions to some of our knottiest problems, creating systems that let us conduct business faster and easier, and manufacturing products we soon discover we can’t live without. The Inc. 5000 list is Inc. magazine’s tribute to American business ingenuity and ambition.”

The Award
To qualify, companies must have been founded and generating revenue by the first week of 2005, and therefore able to show four full calendar years of sales. Additionally, they have to be U.S.-based, privately held, for profit, and independent — not subsidiaries or divisions of other companies — as of December 31, 2008 (a number of companies on the list have gone public or been acquired since that date). Revenue in 2005 must have been at least $200,000, and revenue in 2008 must have been at least $2 million.

by Monty W. Krough, Sr. , BrightFields, Inc.  Published in the Mid-Atlantic Real Estate Journal

Asbestos Containing Building Materials (ACBM) were extensively used in building construction from the 1930s to the 1970s. In the mid-1970s, the KNOWN use of ACBM was discontinued in almost all building-related applications, after exposure to asbestos was linked to certain types of cancer. The United States Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) has banned the manufacturing of ACBM. However, they do not control or regulate the importation of ACBM into the USA.  As a result, some blame the NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement) suppliers and US manufacturers located in other countries for importing ACBM products commonly used in the industry during new post-1970’s construction and renovations. Therefore, the statement that a building constructed after 1980 does not contain asbestos is not always accurate. This statement is commonly provided by building owners, facilities managers and construction managers relative to such a newer building.

There are three major Federal Regulations to consider as a part of the construction or facility managers responsibilities when planning for renovation and/or demolition activities:

1. Code of Federal Regulations (40CFR61- Subpart M), The National Emissions Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants (NESHAP) which regulates asbestos as part of planned demolition and renovation activities.
2. Asbestos School Hazard Abatement Re-Authorization Act, appendix C to Subpart E (ASHARA, 40CFR763) which regulates ACBM in public and commercial buildings.
3. U.S. Department of Labor, Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) 29CFR1926.1101 which regulates workers safety in the Construction Industry.

The NESHAP regulations were established to protect accidental exposure of airborne asbestos fibers during planned renovation or demolition activities.  The only way to be sure there is no ACBM components present prior to the renovation or demolition is to have the building tested by a state licensed and EPA certified professional Asbestos Building Inspector.

The first step in dealing with the possibility of asbestos in your building or facility is to have an EPA Certified and State Licensed Asbestos Building Inspector conduct an EPA NESHAP building survey. The survey would assess the location, quantity and condition of the identified ACBM. The second step is to develop an asbestos abatement plan in regards to the buildings slated specific renovation and or demolition plan.

The EPA’s NESHAP Regulations carry fines of $25,000 per day for noncompliance; criminal charges for willful violations. OSHA violations can result in fines of $7,000 per/day, per incident and in addition, some local and state governments, such as the City of Philadelphia, may have their own regulations and noncompliance penalties.

By hiring an Asbestos Building Inspector and developing the abatement plan, there is a reduced risk of Federal EPA and OHSA legal entanglements and associated monetary fines or imprisonment.  Asbestos removal, the largest environmental cleanup project in US history, has cost an estimated $50 billion over the past 20 years. It has forced schools to lay off teachers, caused owners to abandon buildings and added considerable cost to planned demolition and renovation projects.

Asbestos-related problems in renovation and demolition should be addressed in a rational manner.  Ignoring the potential air-borne exposure to asbestos fibers during these activities is irresponsible to building occupants, employees and surrounding communities.  Above all, it is against the law!  Think first is there a possibility of exposing coworkers, occupants, the community and “throwing the building owner under the bus”?  Never roll the dice.  The best course of action is to identify ACBM at your building or facility, to ascertain the condition and to develop a safe and legal path forward to minimize hazardous or potentially hazardous conditions as part of a deliberate and responsible process of a planned renovation or demolition project.

Monty W. Krough, Sr. is Program Manager of the Asbestos, Mold & IAQ Department for BrightFields, Inc., a full-service environmental consulting and remediation services firm located in Wilmington, DE and Baltimore, MD.