The Restoration Economy reveals the previously undocumented trillion-dollar global industries that are restoring our natural and manmade environments. Restorative development is rapidly overtaking new development because we are running out of things to develop. Most natural areas are already either farmed or degraded, and cities have built all the way to their borders. However, there is no lack of things to redevelop and restore. Storm Cunningham surveys the wide range of restoration industries and points out the connections among them. He shows, for example, how the restoration of a river ecosystem can have a major impact on the commercial success of a redeveloped historic urban waterfront. Written for a broad range of audiences, The Restoration Economy is an entertaining blend of business, science, and economics that details exciting new business and investment opportunities in this dynamic economic sector. Any companies or consultants looking for new markets must read The Restoration Economy! -- Pamela J. Gordon, CMC, President, Technology Forecasters, Inc The Restoration Economy is required reading here at Weston Solutions. It has been indispensable in helping us refocus our strategy -- Bill Robertson, Chairman, Weston Solutions The Restoration Economy is without a doubt the most important and valuable business book I have read in many years -- Don Pross, Urban revitalization planner This book is an original, a first! I profited from it greatly, and I quote from it in my speeches -- William H. Hudnut III, former 4-term Mayor of Indianapolis Senior Fellow - Urban Land Institute This is a landmark work, extremely well written and developed -- Mark Stewart, Senior Vice President, Intrado, Inc. "This book is an original, a first! I profited from it greatly, and I quote from it in my speeches, especially regarding the importance of restoration in the economic life cycle. Cunningham convincingly demonstrates that tremendous markets for new products and services hide just beneath the surface of the deteriorating assets in our natural and built environments. He points us toward restorative development as a smarter, more economically compelling alternative to sprawling new development." —William H. Hudnut, III, 4-term Mayor of Indianapolis "This is a landmark work, extremely well written and developed. This book really opened my eyes on a topic that I had never before considered. I was relieved to see that there is a good and reasonable solution to the ruinous policies of unbridled new development." —Mark Stewart, CEO, iAccess Communications Storm Cunningham was—from 1996 to 2002—Director, Strategic Initiatives at the Construction Specifications Institute, a 52-year-old association with 18,000 architects, engineers, contractors, and manufacturers. He was previously CEO of a small manufacturing company that developed commercial aquaculture systems based on a pioneering water purification technology invented at the Smithsonian Institution. A former Green Beret SCUBA medic, Storm is now the founder of RestorAbility, an Alexandria, Virginia firm. RestorAbility provides strategic research and consulting services for corporations and government agencies desiring growth via integrated restoration strategies. He speaks publicly on the restoration of our organizations and our planet, and is also an avid SCUBA diver and amateur herpetologist, devoting much of his personal time to the restorative development of island nations and indigenous communities. He lives in Arlington, Virginia, with his wife Maria and a dozen Solomon Island skinks. Introduction The world’s great age begins anew, The golden years return, The earth doth like a snake renew Her winter weeds outworn. —Percy Bysshe Shelley, Hellas, 1822 Restoration is the business and the spirit of the twenty-first century. Let’s now expand on the subjects mentioned in the Preface, so you’ll understand why this opening sentence is accurate, rather than wishful. Part of that understanding will come from facts and figures, and part from grasping three key concepts: 1. The Trimodal Development Perspective Development has three modes of operation, corresponding to natural life cycles: new development, maintenance/conservation, and restorative development. Each category produces its own realm of players. Communities and nations normally start with new development, for obvious reasons. The maintenance and conservation mode then kicks in, to service this newly built environment (and to save parts of the newly-threatened natural environment). When their creations get too old to maintain, when the “highest and best” uses of their structures change, and/or when they run out of room and have to start redeveloping the land they’ve already developed, then the final, and longest-lasting, mode becomes dominant: restorative development. When viewed from this “trimodal” perspective, the causes of many “mysterious” national and community problems suddenly beco