Go Green Resilient Atlanta

City to hire Chief Resiliency Officer as part of internatinal designation

By Grace Huseth

In May 2016, Atlanta was chosen as a one of the 100 Resilient Cities from more than 325 applicants spanning more than 90 countries across six continents. Created by the Rockefeller Foundation, the initiative is dedicated to helping cities around the world become more resilient to physical, social and economic challenges.

The city is currently looking to hire a Chief Resiliency Officer (CRO) with 100 Resilient Cities offering guidance on finding a suitable candidate. The Rockefeller Foundation will provide funding for the salary of the CRO for two years with the hopes that that the City of Atlanta will renew the position.

“We are going to get a person who lives and breathes this, that quarterbacks the effort and has the full support of my office and appropriate funding and staff,” said Mayor Kasim Reed. “The real benefit here is not reinventing the wheel and the public sector identifies who is doing this better than everybody else.”

The CRO will visit other cities, the Rockefeller Foundation and Resilient Cities team to identify the best work that is being done and how Atlanta could adopt practical strategies. Reed said this will give Atlanta access to a significant pool of resources, while adding expertise as well. For example, the Atlanta Beltline is among the largest, most wideranging urban redevelopment and mobility projects currently underway in the United States and can serve as an example to other cities.

“I believe this partnership with 100 Resilient Cities will help us be better at the initiatives we are working on today because they bring all district efforts that are occurring in the City of Atlanta into a more unified plan,” Reed said. “This will generate a bigger bang for our buck because we will be working in a more coordinated fashion using best practices, not just from within the United States, but from all over the world.”

The city’s Director of Sustainability, Stephanie Stuckey Benfield agrees. “What I hear repeatedly in conversations is that people say resiliency is about breaking down silos. We have so many department heads and important facets of city government represented, but ‘City’ also means the whole structure of that makes the city work including NGOs, business leaders and the philanthropic community,” Benfield said.

Reed said the City of Atlanta’s current sustainability initiatives include the Better Buildings Challenge to reduce energy use, electric vehicle programs and lean efforts at Hartsfield-Jackson Airport. Environmental efforts include the Bellwood Quarry which will supply a 30-90 day water supply in the event of a drought and the Climate Action Plan to address severe weather events.