As a 501(c)(3) non-profit and non-political organization, the World Business Academy’s mission since its inception in 1986 has been founded on the under¬standing that business is the dominant institution in society today and the one most capable of responding to rapid change. From this understanding, the Academy has for more than 30 years been an advocate for the responsibility of business relative to critical moral, environmental and social dilemmas, and served as an incubator of businesses and other non-profit organizations conceived for a quadruple bottom line of People, Planet, Purpose and Profits.
The Academy’s Sustainable Vision division carries this 35-year tradition into the field of real estate, with a focus on adaptively re-developing real property that is not working when pursued in traditional ways. As the premiere development activity of this group, the Deer Ridge Project Plan focuses on redeveloping the 195-acre former golf course and clubhouse whose permanent closure in September 2019 created a visual and emotional scar on a neighborhood of over 1,000 single-family residences.
The golf course was closed after several prior owners sustained 16 consecutive years of financial losses. As this uninterrupted string of red ink so clearly illustrates, following a nationwide trend in which former golf course residential communities have failed to perform – a golf use cannot be economically justified on the otherwise valuable land. But from a sustainability perspective, there’s more concerns with golf than simply the sport’s shrinking demand as demographics change. Keeping a golf course green requires massive amounts of scarce water resources and use of tons of harmful pesticides and fossil fuel-based fertilizers. Moreover, golf courses generally add to greenhouse gases rather than contribute to reducing harmful CO2 emissions.
When re-envisioned, there must be a better way to replace the aesthetic values that beautifully manicured golf links once provided to surrounding residences and associated home values, but in a manner that is financially sustainable, more environmentally responsible, recreationally and socially positive, and of course visually pleasing for neighbors. The Academy’s plan of re-use focuses on all of these values while adhering to two important constraints: the land’s redevelopment must not require City of Brentwood General Fund support, and local homeowners will not pay for it through their taxes or HOA dues.
The United Nations has adopted 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) with the aim of achieving many of these goals by 2030 and a view towards tackling climate change. The World Business Academy supports the U.N.’s Sustainable Development Goals. Today, as the Academy works to redevelop Deer Ridge in a way that will evangelize the many benefits of clean renewable energy and organic sustainable farming practices using on-site solar power generation, long-term energy storage, electric and fuel-cell based equipment and appliances, we remain true to our guiding principles and many of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals to help realize an ever-better world.
When fully realized as presently envisioned, the Deer Ridge adaptive reuse project will contribute to 8 of the 17 SDGs goals.