About

CCLR is the oldest and only national non-profit working exclusively to champion land cleanup and reuse. We are an independent, third-party force for the sustainable and equitable reuse of land. Our expertise is in cleaning up and redeveloping vacant or contaminated properties, sometimes referred to as "brownfields.” We offer trainings and technical assistance for communities working to turn this land around, and we advocate for policy change at the federal, state and local levels to make land reuse possible in more places.

CCLR serves as U.S. EPA’s Technical Assistance to Brownfield Communities (TAB) provider in New York, New Jersey, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, Washington, Oregon, Idaho, California, Nevada, Arizona, Alaska, Hawaii and the Pacific Island territories.

We focus our programs on the communities with the greatest need and the least access to the specialized knowledge and tools needed to clean up and repurpose land. Often, these are low and moderate income neighborhoods and communities of color. We are a national platform for land recycling excellence, and we are committed to this work because we know that land recycling is the key to ensuring a healthy, sustainable and equitable future for all of us and for our environment.

Major developments in 2017:

In 2017, CCLR merged with two outstanding redevelopment nonprofits: New Partners for Community Revitalization (NPCR), a New York-based organization, and the National Association of Local Government Environmental Professionals (NALGEP), a Washington, D.C. based national organization. The mergers will consolidate the nation’s leading land recycling organizations, strengthen CCLR’s national leadership, and continue both NPCR’ and NALGEP’s work to build the capacity of redevelopment practitioners across the country. To read more about the work of NPCR, including its first-ever comprehensive study of the Brownfield Opportunity Areas Program in New York State, click here. For more information on NALGEP’s resources and history, click here.

CCLR is a 501(c)(3) tax exempt organization CCLR was founded in 1996 by the Trust for Public Land (TPL), a national, nonprofit land conservation organization.

Our Programs

Workshops

Recycling land requires specialized knowledge and tools in order to manage complicated environmental issues. CCLR’s interactive workshops provide project managers and stakeholders with the tools, techniques and resources required for remediating and redeveloping environmentally distressed properties. Visit the workshops page to learn more.

To date CCLR has educated nearly 5,000 community stakeholders through our workshops. Our graduates return to their communities with new tools and resources, ready to tackle redevelopment.

Technical Assistance

CCLR provides technical assistance to redevelopment projects. The objective of this program is to revitalize communities and promote brownfield development in under-served communities. CCLR serves as a trusted advisor, facilitator, and project manager focusing on the environmental components of brownfield redevelopment. Visit our technical assistance page to learn how we can help you. Our results include:

$73 million in forgivable loans and grants for site assessment and cleanup
12,600 new residential units
60,000 square feet of retail
818,000 square feet of commercial
1,500 acres of open space

Land Recycling 2.0

Land Recycling 2.0 (LR2.0) is CCLR’s new sustainability initiative. It will define the next generation of land recycling and spearhead the revitalization of local economies by

Leveraging existing experitise to form a mentoring network
Sharing redevelopment approaches and techniques that are climate-forward; and
Growing the next generation of land recycling practitioners through professional development activities