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

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

CEOs of almost two-dozen leading design and construction industry associations with more than 700,000 members generating almost $1 trillion in GDP used the occasion of National Building Safety Month to issue a joint statement on resilience. The statement was unveiled at a press conference at the National Building Museum, where a major May–August exhibition, Designing for Disaster, presents solutions for disaster mitigation.

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

The CEOs committed their design and construction 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. 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. — Associated Builders & Contractors