Automakers seem to like working on making brownfields a little less brown. Chrysler is working with Michigan State University on growing biofuel crops on the dirty soil, and Ford needed to do a lot of cleaning up after itself at its Minneapolis-St. Paul-area Highland Park property. For another of Ford's brownfield projects, this one at the company's Fairlane Green retail and recreational development in Michigan, Ford won the national Phoenix Award for excellence in brownfield development this week.

The Phoenix Awards (whose website lists the 2006 winner's in the "new" category) have been around since 1997 "to honor the groups that develop significant brownfields sites across the country." Ford's work at Fairlane Green included converting the old landfill site to "a sustainable new development that provides social and economic benefit to the community in an environmentally responsible manner." Full details from Ford available after the jump.