Summit plants the seeds of sustainability and resiliency.

Twenty city leaders from across the nation met with industry experts in Aspen, Colo., for two days in May to get a better understanding of how resiliency can go hand-in-hand with sustainability. And the International Code Council was there. Sponsored by the National League of Cities and the U.S. Green Building Council, the Resilient Cities Summit May 3-5 was designed to get city leaders out of their urban environments and into the Aspen Meadows Resort for a dialogue that would leave the group with seeds of ideas to bring back to their communities, said Justin Wiley, ICC's Vice President of Government Relations-Planning and Operations. "Then they can get their constituents involved in creating a plan to shape and build a more resilient future," said Wiley, one of the 30 industry leaders on hand to lend expertise, answer questions and generate more. "Often, they look at some of these issues as very local, when they also should be looking regionally," Wiley added. "And the ICC can show them the building codes are sufficiently flexible to accommodate those nuances." Community leaders at the summit found resiliency and sustainability is possible — and necessary — no matter where they traveled from, Wiley said, whether they face the possibility of earthquakes as in Salt Lake City, Utah, or the flooding and wind damage from hurricanes on the coast. Indeed, participants came to Aspen from Washington and Oregon, Florida, Tennessee, Wisconsin and New Mexico, to name a few. Face to face, the participants hashed out myriad topics associated with resiliency and sustainability, including: challenges and impacts of climate change; linking resilience to local economic growth; and providing significant and immediate health, learning and community benefits for all residents. All with the idea of shaping action plans tailored to their own communities. Discussions among the city and industry leaders will be compiled into a report, Wiley said. Everyone interested will get a chance to see it in a few months on the ICC's website, as well as those for the National League of Cities and the U.S. Green Building Council. "The idea is to get them to take that first step," Wiley added. "Get them to think how sustainability and resiliency can strengthen their communities. Now we need to continue the dialogue."

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