If It’s Not Resilient, It’s Unsustainable

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It's wise to meet the future well-prepared to thrive, which is why people and businesses focus so hard on sustainability.

Sustainability literally means the ability to keep doing what you're doing (e.g., breathing, eating, farming, working, profiting, etc.) for the foreseeable future. In 1987, the United Nations Brundtland Commission defined sustainability as "meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs." [1]

Over time, sustainability has become an almost boundless term that can include (and exclude) a myriad of different conditions. In 2016, the U.N. identified 17 "sustainable development" goals, which cover food, water, health, education, equality, economic growth, climate action, and more. [2] All good things, but the term is so broad it's arguably losing its meaning and is becoming vulnerable to undermining sound efforts to achieve it.

Make it make sense

Misuse of sustainability has occurred for years. "We live today in an age of sustainababble," author Robert Engleman wrote in 2013, "a cacophonous profusion of uses of the word sustainable to mean anything from environmentally better to cool."

To protect businesses, FM Global uses sustainability as bones, the backbone of which is resilience. Resilience is the ability to resist disruption or rebound when disruption is inevitable. Here’s just one example of why resilience matters in sustainability: The US Green Building Council calls LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design), its celebrated green building rating system, "a globally recognized symbol of sustainability." Other rating systems around the globe have a similar focus. But as Politico reported, hundreds of LEED-certified buildings—paragons of carbon-neutral operation—are at extreme risk of flooding, the costliest natural hazard. In other words, they're sustainable by one narrow definition, but clearly not resilient.

Buildings, businesses, and communities are simply not sustainable if they're poised to be damaged by floods, as many are. Flooding costs the United States an estimated $32 billion annually. For businesses, the cost of rebuilding is compounded by the cost of lost business and/or long-term market share, growth opportunities, and employee and investor trust.

"You can’t be sustainable without being resilient."

Dr. Louis Gritzo, senior vice president and chief science officer, FM Global

Science documents the resilience imperative

FM Global explored this truth in depth a few years ago, finding that vulnerability has a measurable carbon cost. The research showed that, on average, due to the likelihood of fire, unprotected exposure to extensive fire hazards increases carbon emissions over the lifetime of a facility by up to 14%. That figure reflects the carbon impact of a burning building, the disposal of the damaged materials, and the reconstruction. Efforts to improve sustainability solely by investing in increased energy efficiency (without consideration of risk) potentially increase the contribution of fire risk factors to sustainable design by a factor of 3. A sustainable building that burns will generate more carbon emissions than a standard one that's protected.

The risk of wind damage on the East and Gulf coasts of the United States increases carbon emissions by 1-2% over the lifecycle of a typical industrial building, reflecting the impact of potential disposal and reconstruction. The carbon cost of flood damage is similar—unnecessary cleanup, disposal, and reconstruction.

Green tech is good, but…

Newer "sustainability" technologies also involve hidden carbon impact.

Solar panels are vulnerable to wind, electrical fire, and buildup of combustible debris. Green roofs can become serious structural risks when waterlogged. Energy-efficient cladding can be combustible, as in the Grenfell Tower fire. Wind turbines can collapse in strong winds or catch fire in lightning storms. Fires pollute, and all these scenarios require carbon-producing cleanup and reconstruction using materials that generate carbon in their production.

So next time you hear the word sustainable, ask, "Sustainable in what way?" If resilience doesn’t figure into the answer, it just may be sustainababble.

Discover how FM Global's Climate Resilience Products can help.

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