Benefits on reusing dirty sites and GHG reductions

The EPA recently released a report that quantifies the climate-changing greenhouse gas imacts of sprawling land use development and the benefits of reusing brownfield sites. It estimates GHG emissions related to greenfield development -- from the “decay and release of organic carbon to the atmosphere… bio‐carbon can be released from soil, plants, and dead organic matter, such as leaf litter.” The study concludes that these bio-carbon releases may comprise 4 percent of total GHG emissions.

The report also calls particular attention to the potential to reduce GHG emissions by converting “EPA-tracked contaminated land for utility-scale solar and wind,” and “increasing re-cycling of construction debris.”