Regenerative remediation: turning closure into opportunity

Reimagining remediation as a pathway to possibility, where legacy sites can transform into assets that power sustainable growth and community resilience, is no easy feat. Economic analysis helps build a business case that outlines the untapped potential of contaminated sites. Regenerative remediation restores ecosystems and strengthens community well-being, transforming site closure into a proactive catalyst for sustainable growth. Our global remediation practice lead, John Bleiler, and global urbanism and planning lead, Steven Duong, discuss how this approach unlocks long-term business and societal value.

Beyond traditional remediation

For decades, remediation focused on risk reduction and regulatory compliance — essential efforts to address past damage and protect people and the environment. Regenerative remediation involves using sustainable processes — bioremediation, material reuse and energy-efficient design — to restore the health of contaminated sites while embedding environmental uplift and climate vulnerability resiliency.

For owners and operators of legacy sites, combining economics, ecology and engagement can reduce liabilities, advance growth potential, unlock redevelopment opportunities, and support community and environmental commitments.

The business case for regeneration

Owners of existing sites face mounting costs from ongoing monitoring and regulatory compliance due to delayed closure. Quantifying economic and social returns from brownfield redevelopment helps decision-makers forecast job creation, tax revenue increases and broader spillover effects, illuminating the highest-value path to closure. With an economic lens, stakeholders can align earlier in the process to:

1. Articulate the cost of inaction

Delaying site closure can result in ongoing monitoring costs, community health impacts, ecosystem degradation and reputational damage. Regenerative remediation uses data and analytics to quantify these, translating risk into measurable opportunity gains. In the United States, the Access Butler Place Plan in Fort Worth, Texas, models future redevelopment and infrastructure investment scenarios while educating stakeholders about the opportunity cost of inaction. The analysis helped stakeholders see the economic downside of delayed decision–making on a long-standing vacant urban area, leading to a collaborative public-private partnership that guided the buildout of the property into a vibrant community destination. 

2. Reduce liabilities and meet regulatory requirements

Regenerative remediation helps reduce long-term liabilities by aligning cleanup strategies with regulatory mandates and future land use goals. At Taiwan’s Kaohsiung Oil Refinery, advanced treatment methods and real-time data analysis enabled regulatory compliance while reducing long-term exposure risks. In response to a national brownfield revitalization policy, the project demonstrated how regenerative remediation can meet mandates and unlock future value. We turned a contaminated site into a redevelopment-ready asset — originally projected to take 20 years — in just five.

3. Generate long-term income and a sustainable energy supply

Sites once considered financial drains can become revenue-generating assets. The Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) RE-Powering America’s Land Initiative has identified more than 190,000 contaminated or underutilized sites with potential for renewable energy development. “Brightfield projects” — solar or wind installations on remediated land — generate long-term income and sustainably increase energy supplies. These projects also benefit from streamlined permitting, tax incentives and increased community support, making them economically and environmentally sound.

4. Improve environmental outcomes and increase market opportunities

Regenerative remediation can incorporate nature-based solutions (NbS), restoring natural function and resilience to stranded land assets. Solutions like bioremediation and phytoremediation reduce the environmental footprint of remedial actions, restore ecosystems, decrease contamination risks and build climate resilience. Tapping into new nature-based markets and revitalizing otherwise unusable land offsets disposal costs and reduces greenhouse gas emissions by displacing long-term maintenance costs and more carbon-intensive materials.

When the Kaohsiung Oil Refinery in Taiwan faced widespread soil and groundwater contamination five decades into its operation, we leveraged the subtropical climate of the region to successfully employ bioremediation strategies. Use of on-site soil treatment methods, groundwater remediation technologies, digital data management and real-time monitoring minimized environmental impacts and accelerated cleanup. Ultimately, the former refinery will be transformed into an innovation and technology hub.

5. Leverage redevelopment as a stimulus

Investing in brownfield redevelopment stimulates local economies, attracts private investors and expands municipal tax bases. In East Newark, New Jersey, U.S., we partnered with chemical company BASF Corporation to design and oversee the transformation of a 150-year industrial property into a clean, safe and accessible urban park. Our natural resource economists, scientists and engineers measured the park’s economic ripple effect: increased real estate values, strengthened climate resiliency, and improved public safety and well-being. Our economic analyses demonstrated tangible tax revenue increases for the local municipality, assuring stakeholders that the project is a strategic tool for urban renewal.

Learn more about how our regenerative remediation practice is delivering a better world.