Food and brownfields were a popular duo on 2019:

There was a splendid cake to celebrate the 10th Annual Northeast Sustainable Communities Workshop (NSCW) in 2019.  

Breakfast seminars were held in three states: CA, CT and NJ.  The advertising for the seminars included a lovely photo of pancakes. At the NJ seminar series, breakfast came with a side of continuing education credits.

BCONE’s fall event in PA included a great time in a brewery.  Yes, beer is food.

The fall Aspiring Professionals event with BCONE, SWEP, AHMP, AEG and LSRPA included Chimney Rock’s famous pizza.

Seminars covered many topics in 2019, from Opportunity Zones to emerging contaminants.  From community collaboratives to due diligence.  We addressed amendments to the Site Remediation Reform Act and expansions to CT’s Licensed Environmental Professionals’ authority, changes to remediation standards, other proposals for privatized environmental programs, and the intersection of brownfield remediation, redevelopment, resiliency, and land conservation. 

BCONE representatives spoke at the National Brownfield Conference.  We met with environmental and economic development commissioners and wrote to support or oppose legislation and budget proposals. The Coalition’s by-laws have been amended and a new Board is about to meet for the first time in  2020. BCONE solidified its relationships with other like-minded non-profits and strengthened our relationship with Brownfield Listings, the NYS Council of Professional Geologists and CT’s Environmental Business Council.

BCONE’s membership and sponsorships grew in 2019, as did our number of events and number of eblasts to let our members know about upcoming events and news.  Steve Dwyer continues as our blogger and we are improving BCONE’s  social media presence thanks to Tiesha Green. Our committees’ activity is growing and they are always looking for new members.

BCONE is so proud to continue to offer scholarships to grow the next generation of brownfield professionals.  We honor Charlie Bartsch thanks to your generous tax-deductible donations and the fundraisers that we hold twice a year with our colleagues at the NYC Brownfield Partnership and SWEP. Scholarships in 2019 were awarded for exciting student projects.  We need your excellent ideas on how we create a sustainable, dedicated funding stream to increase the scholarships to all states within the BCONE geography. 

Please let us know what you enjoyed most about BCONE in 2019; let us know your recommendations for improvement in 2020. Join a committee, write an article, attend the first-ever Annual Membership Meeting in 2020 (more details to follow). Tell us if we are sending you too many eblasts. Suggest how to increase our social media effectiveness. Bring an aspiring professional to the next event you attend.  Spend some of 2020 with us.  And have a terrific new year.