Teaming up with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

• Position: Conservation Law Foundation of New England - Brief article

CLF Ventures Managing Director and MIT Lecturer Jim Hamilton is using real-world environmental consulting expertise to teach graduate students in the Department of Urban Studies and Planning about sustainability, brownfields redevelopment and stakeholder outreach. In his field-based Environmental Management course, Hamilton stresses community and environmental justice issues when conducting environmental planning work around the region.

The Brownfields Policy and Practice course he also teaches stresses similar values under the rubric of environmental restoration and infill development practices. As part of the field-based part of his course, students worked with the City of Lynn, Massachusetts to improve the stakeholder outreach component of a 200-acre waterfront redevelopment planning process.

"Community input and environmental justice are critical components of any brownfield development project," Hamilton explains. "I try to stress the need to conduct outreach to non-traditional...