Sustainability and Resilience in Federal Agency Operations

In this presentation, I define resilience, and review the need for protection in Federal facilities.  In the session, we will discuss societal, environmental and economic benefits.  A resilient Federal government agency... [ view full abstract ]

In this presentation, I define resilience, and review the need for protection in Federal facilities.  In the session, we will discuss societal, environmental and economic benefits. 

A resilient Federal government agency characteristically meets agency mission in facilities and integrates resilience into planning, design, construction, and operations.  The USDA ad-hoc team on Sustainability and Resilience defines resilience as "The capacity of a facility, a region, or an organization, as a system, to anticipate, prepare for, and systematically adapt to changing conditions and withstand, respond to, and recover rapidly from adverse events; the degree to which the system is able to increase its capacity for learning from past disasters, to enhance protection, and to improve risk reduction measures" and USDA readiness to withstand stresses and to bounce forward from extreme events, especially as patterns alter and occurrence intervals and degrees of threat change e.g. natural hazards and other threats.

Topics include defining asset resilience requirements w.r.t. natural, societal, and economic challenges; sets of solutions applicable to facilities, locales, or regions; economic challenges to life cycle benefits; and decision-making through the life cycle; resilient landscapes, infrastructure, local and regional planning; building codes, and construction practices.

Presentation objectives include:

1. understanding vulnerabilities and challenges to the organizational system;

2. understanding the characteristics of a resilient organization, facility, or location, and addressing vulnerability within each organization and how facilities are constructed and renovated to withstand natural disaster events; discussing the methods used to ensure resilience in an organization, facility, or location.

3. understanding the multiple synergies between adaptation, resilience, and sustainability; 

4. looking at available sustainability metrics and performance assessment systems, demonstrating life-cycle and building performance benefit and goal achievement; and

5. understanding how decision-making in terms of organizational practices, design practices such as specifying building technologies and sustainable buildingmaterials for life-cycle benefits can support resilience  material choices, e.g. using cross-laminated timber, BioPreferred products, and locally sourced materials.

We will discuss:

- how sustainability and resilience can become part of a government agency as a system,

- integrating resilience into the organization’s mission requirements, and incorporating it into operations and requirements,    

- the need for sustainable technology, research, and development;

- means of anticipating, withstanding, and mitigating the effects of extreme events, when mission, operations, policies, and practices are affected by vulnerabilities to extreme events; and

- anticipating outcomes to ensure that adaptation and mitigation are in concert with resilience practices.