The International Code Council is among 31 organizations from America's design and construction industry that are promoting resilience in the nation's buildings, infrastructure, public spaces, and communities. At a recent summit in Washington, D.C., CEOs of the organizations with more than 750,000 members generating almost $1 trillion in GDP, including ICC's Dominic Sims, CBO, issued a joint statement defining resilience as the ability to prepare and plan for, absorb, recover from, and more successfully adapt to adverse events.
"The promotion of resilience will improve the economic competitiveness of the United States," the statement reads. "Disasters are expensive to respond to, but much of the destruction can be prevented with cost-effective mitigation features and advanced planning.
"Our practices must continue to change, and we commit ourselves to the creation of new practices in order to break the cycle of destruction and rebuilding," the statement continues. "Together, our organizations are committed to build a more resilient future."
Prior to this year's summit, the coalition conducted a survey and preliminary results indicate that more than 50 percent were interested in working together on advocacy, policy and codes, and more than 75 percent would benefit from sharing best practices and resources to accomplish the goal of resiliency. |
