Resilience Is The New Sustainability

BY EVAN REIS

For many years, the design and construction industry has equated the term sustainability with carbon footprint. When this is the primary metric by which sustainability is measured, it is difficult for concrete to compete, because it must play catchup both in technology and perception when compared to other materials.

The concrete industry is missing an essential strategy where it is a natural leader compared to other materials. Carbon, or green design, is only one component of sustainability. The other is resilience.

The USRC methodology takes advantage of state-of-the-art techniques to calculate life-cycle cost benefits and return on investment for resilient design.

The U.S. Resiliency Council (USRC) is committed to building public awareness of the performance of buildings in natural disasters and communicating the value of resilience-based design in protecting not only the lives, but the livelihoods of Americans. Both the social and the economic impacts that natural disasters cause are absolutely critical to defining a society, a business, or a family as sustainable. We must not only have a low impact on the environment, the environment must have a low impact on us.

Resilient Housing Stock

The more the public demands better performance in their buildings, the more developers, cities, and businesses will take notice. In San Francisco, one of the top resilience goals is to have 95% of its population return within a year after a major earthquake. This doesn’t mean just having a 95% occupancy rate. San Francisco’s goal is to maintain the character of its neighborhoods; therefore, it wants 95% of the existing population to be able to return. The only way that will happen is if the housing stock is resilient enough to be economically repaired. If it takes two to three years to replace a building that has to be demolished and rebuilt, versus two to three months to repair a building with only minor damage, it is far more likely in the latter case that the existing occupants will be able to return.

The concrete industry must engage in similar education and advocacy if it is to build public demand for higher performing buildings.

These high-performance goals typically cost only 1% to 3% more than buildings that meet the minimum code standards. Often, simply a change from one material to another can make a positive impact on performance with no added cost. Despite these arguments in favor, the U.S. Resiliency Council recognizes that inertia and other factors hold back decision makers. Switching to an unfamiliar structural system, trying a new construction technique, or having to defend even a small budget increase results in the typical questions, “Why take the risk? Why should I do that when no one is asking for it?”

The USRC methodology takes advantage of state-of-the-art techniques to calculate life-cycle cost benefits and return on investment for resilient design, and is working to increase demand for better performing buildings by those who are buying, leasing, lending, and insuring them. In Tokyo, buildings that use seismic base isolation systems command 40% higher rents and resale values because the requirement is high for seismically resilient structures. There are even television and subway advertisements for base isolation. When is the last time you saw something like that on American TV? Popular demand is high because of the recent history of damaging earthquakes in Japan—and a strong public education program about the benefits of resilience-based design in protecting the social and economic fabric of the country.

Wind, Flood, Fire, and Blast

This philosophy applies beyond earthquakes. The threefold principles of measuring safety, damage, and recovery of a structure extends across all natural and man-made disasters. The USRC’s current earthquake performance rating system will be joined by rating systems for wind, flood, fire, and blast. All of these hazards are particularly well suited to precast concrete construction and the inherent multihazard resilience it delivers.

If the industry wants to build demand for better performing buildings using precast concrete, it should focus on its natural advantages and resilience to earthquake, wind, flood, and fire. Owners, tenants, lenders, insurers, and governments can relate to the safety of the buildings in which their residents, clients, and families live and work. They can relate to the preservation of a community’s economy and social fabric that can only be achieved if those buildings can be repaired and returned to functionality quickly after an event.

There is always a need to crunch the numbers and show that an industry can be competitive on a first-cost basis with other industries. And we need desperately to reduce environmental impacts on our planet. But we must also consider the future social and economic resilience of our communities by building in ways that will be durable in the face of natural hazards. ●

MEXICO BEACH’S LONE SURVIVOR

Sand Palace of Mexico Beach, Fla., made national news in the aftermath of Hurricane Michael. The image of one structure that remained standing in a field of devastation captured the attention of many.

Owner Lebron Lackey of Tennessee shared his thoughts regarding the genesis of his vacation home. The goal was to create a house that would stay in the family for generations. “The survivability of the building in a major hurricane, you might call it the Big One, was our primary concern and the driver behind all of our decisions,” Lackey says. The structure used 12-in., 40-ft-long prestressed concrete piles that cantilever up from bearing. Precast concrete beams support insulated concrete form walls. The physician was prescient in his use of concrete and resilient construction.

“For us, function always won out over form. Before Hurricane Michael, we would not have said that we had the prettiest house in Mexico Beach, but after it would seem we have the only house still standing,” says Lackey.