This session will include a presentation from HUD political and career leadership detailing how HUD is working to implement equity and resilience in its programs, policies and practices how the Department is assisting communities across the country become more resilient.

Measuring the impacts of buildings, assemblies and products can be complex. Every design decision from product selection to envelope design and construction can have an impact on the environment throughout the project’s service life. The A/E/C community as well as owners now have the ability to adopt a holistic life cycle perspective to provide solutions that minimize the environmental impacts while ensuring resilience to natural hazards.

Statistics show that every dollar spent on mitigation measures to make a home or business more resilient saves $6 in repair costs following a disaster.

The U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) has partnered with the Insurance Institute for Business & Home Safety (IBHS) and the Insurance Information Institute (Triple-I) to help homeowners and business owners become more aware of their risks and help make their properties more resilient to future disasters.

It is estimated that we are building one New York City a month globally. The role of the construction sector in mitigating and adapting to climate change is critical to our existence in this planet as we know it.

There are an estimated 35,000 museums and historic sites in the United States, contributing nearly $50 billion to America’s GDP. Every year, people make 850 million visits to museums and 250 million visit them virtually. Americans trust those museums more than any other entertainment format. We must endeavor to use the strength of U.S. museums to combat climate change for the benefit of the built environment and Americans.

The new American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) Code of Ethics’ first statement reads, “Engineers govern their professional careers on the following fundamental principles [to] create safe, resilient, and sustainable infrastructure...”

Adoption and enforcement of modern, hazard-resistant building codes and standards helps to reduce the costs of natural disasters and make communities more resilient. But not all communities adopt them.

The last decade has demonstrated that designers, managers, utilities and government agencies have been challenged in addressing a variety of vulnerabilities facing their facilities and infrastructure systems, including: