Los Angeles isn't short on ideas or expertise. But, like many communities rebuilding after a disaster, it lacks the connections, systems, and capacity to bring them together at scale.
The Weekly: LA Has the Leadership and Capital to Rebuild with Resilience. It's Missing the System to Connect Them.
Los Angeles isn't short on ideas or expertise. But, like many communities rebuilding after a disaster, it lacks the connections, systems, and capacity to bring them together at scale.
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- Feature: Three lessons from the Rebuilding with Resilience Summit in LA. - From the archive: Physical risk only becomes a credit problem when governments can't manage it. - In the news: How climate resilience can help cities and businesses grow.
Three Lessons from the Rebuilding with Resilience Summit in LA
By Jonathan Dromgoole, Contributing Author for The Epicenter and Strategy, Partnerships, and Operations Lead for Resilient LA, a program of The Resiliency Company.
On August 17 and 18, leaders from philanthropy, government, finance, insurance, construction, advocacy, and disaster recovery gathered in Los Angeles to ask how we can turn the lessons from the Eaton and Palisades fires into a better way to rebuild.
Organized by The Resiliency Company and SoCal Grantmakers, the gathering's first day focused on philanthropy's role in supporting recovery and building long-term resilience. On day two, the Rebuilding with Resilience Summit brought together practitioners, community leaders, survivors, and experts to move from ideas to action on rebuilding with resilience.
The takeaway: Los Angeles isn't short on ideas or expertise. But, like many communities rebuilding after a disaster, it lacks the connections, systems, and capacity to bring them together at scale.
Three lessons stood out:
Resilient rebuilding requires all of us. Survivors are navigating insurance, permitting, financing, and government processes largely alone; community organizations are filling gaps but often lack capacity to sustain the work; and agencies struggle to move from policy to implementation. Rather than standing up new organizations or initiatives, LA needs better coordination of what exists: trusted hubs, caseworkers, mentor networks, and shared tools.
We need to move from ideas to implementation. Grants alone can’t rebuild neighborhoods, corridors, and infrastructure at scale, but there are financial models from across the country that show what’s possible—from Lendistry’s Disaster Recovery Mortgage to Alabama’s FORTIFIED roof program. Resilient Los Angeles is working to make resilient rebuilding easier to understand, implement, and replicate. Through pilot projects with builders, nonprofits, and community partners, we are testing what higher-resilience rebuilding can look like on the ground, while our Rebuilding with Resilience Manual translates technical standards and best practices into practical guidance that homeowners, builders, and communities can use.
Collaboration is the infrastructure for a resilient rebuild. Groups like the Department of Angels, a nonprofit ensuring that fire-impacted communities in Los Angeles lead their own recovery, are connecting residents to one another, to vital resources, and to expert-informed solutions.
Los Angeles has the leadership, expertise, and capital to build a more coordinated, resilient recovery system. The work now is connecting those people, testing pilots, and turning Summit ideas into partnerships that, together, add up to a system better prepared for what comes next.
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This is an excerpt from an article on Jonathan’s takeaways from the Rebuilding with Resilience Summit. Read the full article here.
Why Plugging In All Those EVs Could Actually Save the Power Grid | Grist | Electric vehicles could become a major source of grid storage through vehicle-to-grid programs. A new report finds that enrolling just 10% of California’s EV owners by 2036 could provide a third of the state’s targeted long-duration storage, potentially reducing the need for costly battery projects and reducing grid stress during heat waves.
Scaling Uptake of Insurance in the Municipal Climate Resilience Toolkit | Climate Policy Initiative | Less than 10% of climate-related losses in emerging and developing economies are insured, leaving cities vulnerable to major post-disaster financial shocks. A report from the Climate Policy Initiative identifies parametric insurance as one way to help municipalities get faster, more affordable payouts after climate disasters.
How Climate Resilience Can Help Cities and Businesses Grow | World Economic Forum | Climate resilience is becoming an economic competitiveness issue as extreme weather disrupts businesses, supply chains, and infrastructure. The World Economic Forum describes how cities including Singapore, Rotterdam, and Gothenburg are investing in flood protection, water security, green space, and other resilience measures to attract businesses, workers, and investment.
Read more about resilient public infrastructure and government solutions on The Epicenter here.
Real Estate & Construction
Adapting Buildings to Climate Change | Saint-Gobain and Arup | A new report describes how climate adaptation can become a core part of building design, including for retrofitting existing structures and for new construction. It highlights building envelopes, site design, integrated systems, climate-risk data, and evolving building codes as tools for preparing buildings for extreme weather and heat.
In Birmingham, Alabama, a Solar House is Building a More Resilient Community | Generation180 | UAB’s off-grid Solar House demonstrates how solar, battery storage, passive design, and water management can make homes more resilient while reducing energy needs. The project is also helping Birmingham develop portable microgrids that can keep essential services running when the grid goes down.
How ‘Hurricane Resistant’ Babcock Ranch Is Pioneering the Future of Climate-Resilient Living | Realtor.com | Babcock Ranch survived a direct hit from Hurricane Ian without losing power or flooding homes, a test of solar power, stormwater management, and resilient construction. Now the Florida community is launching a climate resilience accelerator focused in part on building homes that can withstand extreme weather while lowering insurance costs.
Read more about resilient real estate on The Epicenter here.
The Resiliency Company In the News
Our partners at Bright Harbor, a company building technology that puts disaster survivors at the center of recovery, recently interviewed Abby Ross, CEO of The Resiliency Company, and featured her in this week’s newsletter. Check it out here, and subscribe to their excellent weekly newsletter.
The Statistic of the Week
3x
Since the 1970s, sea level rise has nearly tripled the number of days with extremely high water levels in coastal areas globally.
Have thoughts to share or want to add your voice to the conversation? Reach out!
The Epicenter helps decision-makers understand climate risks and discover viable resilience solutions. The Epicenter is an affiliated publication of The Resiliency Company, a 501(c)3 nonprofit dedicated to inspiring and empowering humanity to adapt to the accelerating challenges of the next 100+ years.
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