Along with our Bamboo Agroforestry & Agriculture Program, we support networking and seek to collaborate on Urban Sustainability (US) project sites which can serve as destinations for gleanings from our agroforestry projects, retail and value-adding industry venues, and as “working classrooms” for our educational program.
When and where possible, we seek to engage and re-enliven foreclosed or abandoned commercial assets (sometimes called greyfields) and, by extension, the health and welfare of at-risk communities. PBR views such properties as “indicator species” of community distress and so can serve as useful catalysts for social change and community revitalization.
In short, we aim to:
- Transform defunct properties into vibrant multi-functional and beautiful venues of abundant resource production, light manufacturing and value-added industry activity, retail business, education and training programs, and community engagement;
- Create places for resource “guilds” to form coherent, replicable models for social change, community and economic revitalization, and design innovation;
- Demonstrate practical applications of affordable, inclusive, optimally productive, low-energy input, benign emission, and best-practiced design methods in places which formally exhibited unstable “mono-crop” commercial functionalities (i.e. closed drug stores, box stores, restaurants, auto malls, etc.);
- Acquire, develop, manage and generate shared revenues and rewards via a portfolio of resilient property assets and related sustainable economic and community partnerships;
- Replicate projects across region and country (if not internationally).
Admittedly ambitious, these types of ideas and collaborations are exciting and timely. PBR staff have met with members of Engineers Without Borders and discussed opportunities for collaborative project support.
Want to join in? For more information about our program and to explore volunteer and internship opportunities, contact Dr. Jonathan Scherch.
