Environmental restoration creates jobs

With West Virginia’s budget deficit in the hundreds of millions of dollars each year and jobs so scarce, new economic development approaches are needed. A strategic partnership between Downstream Strategies and the Canaan Valley Institute offers an approach that links environmental restoration with economic development.

We work with partners to build on each community’s strengths, develop action plans and implement on-the-ground projects that clean up pollution and set the stage for new economic development.  Our work is part of a growing, statewide restoration industry that transforms liabilities into assets.

Restoration projects employ local people, diversify the state’s economy, support other economic sectors and improve our quality of life. Brownfields are examples of liabilities found in many West Virginia communities. They are former industrial or commercial sites where future use is hindered by real or perceived environmental contamination. They sit unoccupied, a source of blight.  Full story HERE