As we navigate the challenges of our changing world, the difference between sustainability and resilience reveals two overlapping paths to a thriving future. Sustainability involves designing and building projects that conserve resources, minimize environmental impact, and provide long-term benefits to our communities. Resilience focuses on the capability to manage risk to prepare for, withstand, and recover from challenges like natural disasters, climate change, and economic shifts.
By integrating principles of sustainability and resilience, the AEC industry can plan, design, and construct both physical and operational infrastructure that remains robust and adaptable within its environment. This holistic approach lays the foundation for a successful future where people, infrastructure, and the natural world coexist and thrive.
Building for the Future: The Pillars of Sustainability
AEC professionals must consider sustainability as a standard practice in planning and design. By the nature of our work, we’re in a position to partner with our clients to build a better future.
Currently, the Mead & Hunt aviation planning team is supporting Gerald R. Ford International Airport in developing its first Sustainability Management Plan. The Plan will guide the airport in setting goals and identifying ways to improve in three priority focus areas: energy, solid waste, and social responsibility. As our first accomplishment, we supported the airport in achieving entry to ACI’s Airport Carbon Accreditation Program—the only internationally endorsed program that evaluates and recognizes airports’ efforts toward carbon emission management.
When we apply sustainable design, we can reduce the carbon footprint of buildings and building campuses, conserve natural resources, and mitigate climate change. Not only does this effort preserve and protect the environment, but we also help clients reduce costs, foster community support, meet regulatory requirements, and achieve stakeholder expectations. AEC firms that integrate sustainable practices are better positioned to meet these demands and stay competitive in the industry.
Adapting to Change: The Core of Resilience
Resilience reflects planning for, managing, and recovering from unforeseen disruption. Resilient buildings are equipped to adapt to current and future climate conditions, allowing them to remain functional and relevant over time. Resilience planning can account for operational and financial resilience, as well, which involves improving efficiencies and managing economic stress in a way that will provide benefits in both the short term and long term.
Adaptability is key to maximizing resilience. We need to design our buildings to be flexible and conducive to changes and updates. In the face of unexpected yet inevitable disruptions, resilient infrastructure helps maintain essential services and support community recovery. AEC professionals play an important role in creating spaces that contribute to the social and economic stability of the communities we serve.
Sustainability + Resilience = Building a Better World
While sustainability and resilience serve different goals and functions in planning, design, and construction, they are often used interchangeably to reflect the standards we must achieve, as opposed to being secondary considerations. More than a pair of flashy buzzwords, these two objectives are essential in creating a future that is environmentally responsible, economically viable, and capable of withstanding future disruptions ahead.
When we balance sustainability with resilience, AEC professionals can create future-ready infrastructure—building a better world we can all appreciate and depend on for many years to come.
