Sustainable Brownfield Regeneration - Dealing with Contaminated Sites: From Theory Towards Practical Application - page 1081

25.3 What is Regeneration?
Regeneration is “the process of turning round deprived communities in decayed
neighbourhoods”. Regeneration is the motivation of most redevelopment. Ireland's
new O2 music venue (Fig. 25.1 ) is billing itself on hoardings in Dublin Airport:
“It's built - they're coming.” “Build and they will come” was the mantra of the
Kevin Costner film “Field of Dreams”, but it was the US EPA's Carl Alvarez who
introduced the phrase to a European Brownfield regeneration audience at the first
CABERNET plenary meeting in Athens in January 2003. He pointed out that for
every dollar of public sector investment, four to five private dollars followed. This
ratio has also been observed in the UK and other parts of Europe.
Fig. 25.1 Promoting the new Dublin O2 (source: C P Nathanail, reproduced with permission)
25.4 What is Sustainable Regeneration?
atimetobebornandatimetodie,
a time to plant and a time to uproot,
a time to kill and a time to heal,
a time to tear down and a time to build,
(Book of Ecclesiastes Chapter 3 verses 2 and 3)
Nothing lasts forever. Regeneration involves reinvention and long-term creation,
or at least maintenance, of capital: economic, intellectual, social and environmen-
tal capital. Many conflate and confuse sustainable development and sustainability.
The Brundtland Commission definition of sustainable development has taken on
the mantle of a mantra: “Sustainable development is development that meets the
needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet
their own needs.” Not only does the debate confuse “wants” with “needs”, but also
“growth” with “development”. The laws of compound interest seem to have been
forgotten or cast aside to enable economic growth to be a necessary precondition
for what is termed sustainable development in much of the developed world.