Historically, strong federal environmental regulations drove government action to manage water resources -- that’s changing as more communities experience flooding and see the benefits of nature-based solutions to mitigate those impacts.
Insurers play a key role in sending risk signals, sometimes in a form other than price. These risk experts need to lead by reframing the “insurance crisis” as the “insurability crisis,” and leveraging a time-tested safety standard approach to align a complex ecosystem of competing interests.
Homeowners who built their homes to IBHS certified FORTIFIED standards saved thousands after Hurricane Sally hit in 2020. The FORTIFIED building standard is saving homes from Category 3 storm damage, and also saving homeowners and insurance companies costs on annual insurance premiums and claims.
Between 2000-2009, the U.S. averaged almost seven disasters per year that cost a billion dollars or more (per disaster). Twenty years later, in 2023, that number had spiked to 28 disasters every year, or one every other week.
What’s concerning is that these increasingly frequent climate events are not just the mega-storms like Hurricane Katrina (approximate cost: $200 billion). Today, even a 30-minute thunderstorm can cause over $1 billion in damage.
What’s going on? It’s a complex, nuanced challenge, and in the coming months we’ll unpack it in a new email newsletter.
It involves climate change, population growth and migration, asset exposure, federal policy, private capital, systemic inequities, and the need to adapt our nation’s critical infrastructure.
One thing is clear: we’re entering an era where the cycles of destruction-to-reconstruction will only become more rapid.
Storms will hit. Communities will rebuild. Storms will hit again. Communities will rebuild once more.
These rapid cycles of deconstruction-to-reconstruction present an opportunity to think differently about how we prevent costly destruction in the first place, incorporate resiliency into our infrastructure, and support communities in the rebuilding process.
This is the work of The Resiliency Company. We mobilize the funding, innovation, and policies required to shift markets and minds toward resiliency.
We define resiliency as the ability of infrastructure—the physical, economic, and social systems central to the functioning of an economy and a society—to withstand extreme climate impacts and recover from them quickly. Whether it’s new building codes, storm-resistant roofing, wildfire mitigation practices, or permeable pavement that reduces flood risk, there are opportunities everywhere.
The U.S. has spent over $2.7 trillion on the cumulative cost of disasters since 1980, and $1.1 trillion over the past 10 years alone. Trillions more will be spent rebuilding after disasters over the coming decades, unless we do something differently. While we might not be able to reduce the frequency of climate-driven hazards like heavy rainfall or extreme winds, we can make their destruction less costly and our infrastructure more resilient.
The Epicenter helps infrastructure decision-makers understand climate risks and identify practical, cost-effective resilience solutions.
Whether you're an insurance industry executive seeking climate risk management insights, a local or municipal government official responsible for allocating budgets for resiliency, a builder or commercial real estate leader making portfolio-level decisions on climate-adapted solutions, or a private investor or philanthropist considering expanding your investment thesis to include resilient infrastructure, The Epicenter will keep you on the cutting edge.