What’s New at BrightFields, Inc.

BrightFields is pleased to announce our new membership with Habitat for Humanity of New Castle County’s newest out-reach program, Habitat Young Professionals Committee.    The vision of the Habitat Young Professionals Committee is to raise money, create awareness, and promote volunteerism for Habitat for Humanity of New Castle County, Delaware.

In the six years that BrightFields has been working with Habitat for Humanity of New Castle County, we have helped transform potentially environmentally contaminated and under used brownfield properties into clean and safe working environments for Habitat volunteers to construct safe and affordable homes for families in need.  We have seen a total of 24 homes completed and are currently working on completing another 21 homes.

BrightFields conducts environmental monitoring on a Habitat for Humanity work site.

Please stay tuned for new updates!

BrightFields is pleased to announce we have been accepted into Energize Delaware’s – Efficiency Plus Home Performance with ENERGY STAR® Program. This residential energy efficiency program allows homeowners to take advantage of Delaware’s cash rebates which will match up to 50 percent of the cost of home improvements up to $8,250 when they make eligible energy efficient home improvements. BrightFields is a Building Performance Institute-certified Home Performance with ENERGY STAR® contractor. We can conduct your home energy audit (a requirement under this program) which will provide the homeowner with a comprehensive report recommending a variety of energy-saving opportunities. This program also includes an energy audit rebate up to $250. Based on the energy audit the homeowner can then decide which improvements they would like to implement. Other available rebates include discounts on Compact Florescent Lightbulbs and up to $550 for heating and cooling equipment. This program allows homeowners to take advantage of energy-efficient improvements and money-saving rebates that can lower their energy use by 20 – 45 percent!

BrightFields was recently honored by the News Journal as being a “Top Workplace” in Delaware! The News Journal named BrightFields as the number 11-ranked small business to work for in Delaware. BrightFields sincerely thanks the News Journal for this recognition.

BrightFields Top Workplace profile page

DelawareOnline.com Top Workplaces section

Please join us to celebrate Earth Day’s 40th birthday on April 22, from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., in Wilmington’s Rodney Square. Visitors will be welcomed with music, a free giveaway, and vendors offering advice that’s good for the environment, and your wallet. This rain-or-shine festival is hosted by the Partnership for the Delaware Estuary on behalf of the City of Wilmington.  BrightFields will have a table set up with demonstrations on composting and energy auditing.  Hope to see you there!

BrightFields is proud to be a part of the team helping to bring Fisker’s ideas to life in Delaware.

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

BrightFields gratefully thanks Evans Paull  of the Northeast-Midwest Institute (http://www.nemw.org/) and the National Brownfield Coalition for doing a great job bringing Brownfields to the attention of the Obama Administration and the Legislature. 

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

BrightFields Ranks 13 on the Environmental Business Journals 2009 Best Firms to Work For List

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.

In December, BrightFields sampled artifacts recovered from the World Trade Center wreckage to confirm the objects were free of asbestos. The objects, which highlight items belonging to police officers who were at the site of the 9/11/01 attacks, include a partially incinerated revolver, an officer’s badge, debris from the buildings, and a shattered piece of one of the airplanes that flew into the World Trade Center. They will be put on display at the National Law Enforcement Museum in Washington, D.C., in a future exhibit. “It was an incredibly moving experience, not only to have seen and held these objects, but also to have played a part in making them available to a larger audience,” said Matt Jones, the BrightFields project manager who conducted the sampling.

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.

Zweig White has ranked BrightFields as one of today’s leading environmental consulting firms, number 188 on its 2009 list of the 200  fastest-growing architecture, engineering, and environmental consulting firms on the basis of percentage and dollar growth. This is BrightFields’ second year in a row to be recognized by Zweig White.  Over the years, the “Hot Firm” designation has become synonymous with success in the industry.

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.