The U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) has released a resilience case study on the City of Boston. Commissioned by E Cubed Optimizers (ECO), the study reviews the measures taken, lessons learned and challenges faced by the City of Boston in its work to create a truly resilient city. The study is the latest effort from USGBC to drive a more resilient future through education, resources and programs.
“At USGBC, we have a vision that buildings and communities will regenerate and sustain the health and vitality of all life within a generation,” said Mahesh Ramanujam, president and CEO, USGBC. “And we know that in order to realise a sustainable future for all, the next generation of green building must focus on the development of smart and resilient cities and communities. This Boston case study demonstrates the factors our cities must champion – equitable, safe and healthy development policies; implementation of interoperable platforms and advanced technologies that improve the performance of their communities and cities; and incorporating concepts like wellness and human experience into city planning, development and management.”
This case study is designed to help Boston and cities around the globe enhance and further their own quest for resilience. Boston has made significant progress in tackling resiliency, such as in its response and planning following the Boston bombings in 2013 and its appointment of the city’s first chief resilience officer in 2015. World cities can learn many lessons from Boston’s experiences to enhance ways in which they can tackle resiliency.
“In the case study of Boston, we examined 16 different resiliency factors. Although these factors are separately examined, they are strategically interrelated. No one factor can guarantee significant resiliency no matter how strong it may be,” said Katherine Hammack, executive director, Ernst & Young (former CEO E Cubed Optimizers).
“We can have the most resilient infrastructure, but if the human factors are not resilient, the city is not resilient,” said Les Lo Baugh, president, E Cubed Optimizers. “We call a city without people a ‘ghost town.’ A resilient city requires resilient infrastructure, resilient systems and resilient people. One of the reasons Boston was an excellent candidate for the case study is that Boston understands this fundamental principal.”
