Top A/E/C groups pinpoint resilient-project planning, materials

Source: Associated Builders & Contractors, Washington, D.C.

Design and construction industry leaders, along with building owners and operators, have pledged to promote resilience in contemporary planning, building materials, project specifications and operational techniques as the solution to making the nation’s aging infrastructure more safe and secure.

Coinciding with National Building Safety Month, chief executive officers of 20-plus leading design and construction industry associations with more than 700,000 members issued a joint statement on resilience at the National Building Museum in Washington, D.C.—against the backdrop of the Lafarge North America-sponsored Designing for Disaster exhibition.

“We recognize that natural and manmade hazards pose an increasing threat to the safety of the public and the vitality of our nation,” reads the statement. “We further recognize that contemporary planning, building materials, design, construction and operational techniques can make our communities more resilient to these threats.”

The CEOs committed their design and construction sector organizations to significantly improve the resilience of the nation’s entire built environment through research into new materials, construction procedures and other methods to improve the standard of practice. Among other things, they also committed the industry to educating itself through continuous learning; to advocating for effective land use policies; to responding to disasters alongside first responders; and, to planning for future events with a strategy for fast recovery.

Organizations signing onto the joint statement on resilience are American Council of Engineering Companies; American Planning Association; American Society of Civil Engineers; American Society of Interior Designers; American Society of Landscape Architects; American Society of Plumbing Engineers; ASHRAE, Associated Builders & Contractors, Associated General Contractors of America, Building Owners and Managers Association, International Code Council, International Interior Design Association, Lean Construction Institute, National Association of Home Builders,National Institute of Building Sciences International Facility Management Association, National Society of Professional Engineers, Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors, Urban Land Institute and U.S. Green Building Council.