EJQ3 - Winter 2025 - Journal - Page 57
community—a commitment to revitalizing these sites and inspiring others to
join us. The mission feels more urgent than ever as we confront the relentless
push for sprawl and the worsening condition of our planet.
Fortunately, over the past 25 years, our community has grown in number
and a wider array of sectors are represented. What started as a small group of
policymakers, developers, engineers, and 昀椀nancial services representatives
has expanded into a community involving public, private, and non-pro昀椀t
sectors, community representatives, urbanists, environmentalists, and others
from all walks of life and all parts of the political spectrum.
The types of sites we seek to reuse has also expanded. Indeed, it had already
broadened from contaminated to potentially contaminated land to brown昀椀elds before the Brownie Awards 25 years ago, and it has since enlarged even
more to embrace land recycling and in昀椀ll at large.
CHRISTOPHER DE SOUSA IS A PROFESSOR
IN THE SCHOOL OF URBAN AND REGIONAL
PLANNING AT TORONTO METROPOLITAN
UNIVERSITY. DE SOUSA HAS BEEN THE CHAIR OF
THE BROWNIE AWARDS JURY FOR SEVERAL YEARS.
In addition to being with a growing cadre of like-minded brown昀椀elders, the
Brownie Awards allow us to take account and raise a toast to excellence in our
昀椀eld. We are fortunate to have so many motivating and spectacular beforeand-afters. Images of other environmental projects that involve murky to
clean water, cloudy to clean air, or dull grass to biodiverse meadow can’t beat
E N V I RON M E N T J OURN A L QUA RT E RLY RE PORT • W I N T ER 2 02 5 • P AG E 5 7
