Resilience Is Now a KPI in Our Tumultuous World

In our VUCA world, the ability to adapt and thrive amid compound challenges is crucial. Here are just a few examples of future-proof models for communities, businesses, ecosystems, technologies and more that have us excited about the growing resilience movement.

Published 1 month ago | About a 7 minute read

Image: Starfish are one of several animals that can regrow limbs, if necessary. | Dean Franklin

In an era that continues to be shaped by a polycrisis that includes climate change, political and economic instability, social upheaval, growing resource scarcity and technological disruption — the ability to adapt and thrive in the face of these compounded challenges is essential for both individuals and businesses.

In response to these challenges, leaders in the global sustainability movement are beginning to recognize the need to focus on designing for what author Nassim Nicholas Taleb calls “antifragility” — which describes systems whose health increases as a result of stressors, shocks, volatility, noise, mistakes, faults, attacks or failures.

At Sustainable Brands®, we see examples of designing for resilience through adaptation and regeneration being applied in many areas — with examples emerging of future-proof models for communities, businesses, ecosystems, technologies and more. Here are just a few examples of initiatives that have us excited about the growing resilience movement:

Bringing the insurance industry into the 21st century

Helping the industry move toward its goal of avoiding risk — not through bluelining or (however inadvertently) underwriting the climate crisis, but by shifting the model toward incentivizing disaster-preparedness and other proactive approaches to safeguarding assets. Forward-thinking companies such as Premiums for the Planet are showing how the insurance industry’s long-range look at risk can be used as a lens to help companies plan for disruptive, external events.

Dispersing cutting-edge planning tools and resources

A collaboration between AT&T, FEMA and the US Department of Energy’s Argonne National Laboratory, the Climate Risk and Resilience Portal (ClimRR) uses climate-science modeling to give state, local, tribal and territorial emergency managers, and community leaders free access to localized data about future climate risks that can be used to shape planning, adaptation and resilience strategies.

Embracing age-old, holistic approaches to stewarding nature

Ever since COP15 in 2022, we’ve seen an explosion of corporate and government strategies to halt and reverse nature loss by 2030. While many companies and cities are looking to science-based targets for nature and collaborations such as the Nature Positive Initiative and Business for Nature for guidance, others — including the American Sustainable Business Network and the city of Fort Collins, Colorado — are showing what’s possible when we re-embrace holistic principles learned from Indigenous populations, the original experts in working in harmony with nature.

Future-proofing cities and buildings

More intentional planning and design and increased understanding of the importance of better materials and systems are beginning to help address the carbon footprint of cities (which the World Bank estimates are responsible for 70 percent of global CO2 emissions — thanks to a polluting combination of industrial and motorized transport systems and far-flung infrastructure, constructed with carbon-intensive materials) while increasing the quality of life for city residents.

While some are still theoretical, we’re seeing a host of innovative, systems-level plans for redesigning existing cities to be more inclusive, safe, resilient, and sustainable: Approaches include making city centers more walkable by reducing our dependence on cars; and increasing green space and “tree equity” through inclusion of more public parks and play spaces, to improve air quality and community health and wellbeing of inner-city communities and help temper the causes and consequences of excessive urban heat. Proposed circular strategies for optimizing both the built environment and biodiversity within major cities will increase climate resilience and unlock hundreds of billions of potential revenue across the built environment value chain; and planned community models such as Geoship and Florida’s Babcock Ranch, literally built to weather any storm, provide inspiration for building better from the ground up.

On the construction front, an explosion in next-generation materials and processes are changing how we manufacture ubiquitous, heavy-emitting materials such as steel and concrete — which are reducing embodied carbon in buildings, along with carbon in the atmosphere; and forward-thinking designs enable buildings — such as Interface’s factories, Microsoft’s data centers or Aspen Vodka’s Colorado distillery — to capture and store more energy than they use and work in harmony with the surrounding environment, even improving the quality of natural resources such as water.

Nearshoring supply chains

More and more companies are bringing their suppliers closer to home, which helps reduce everything from emissions and costs (shorter distances equals fewer transport miles) to waste (it enables smaller production runs) and risk of disruption from unforeseen events (ex: the pandemic, extreme-weather events, geopolitical conflicts).

Increasing resilience of agricultural commodities

A lot of work on this front can be seen in the proliferation of regenerative practices now being used to grow the crops behind some of our most common foods, beverages and textiles; but other exciting advancements can be seen in the development and discovery of new varieties of climate-challenged crops — including coffee and cacao.

Optimizing material and resource use

We continue to be delighted and inspired by the growing circular economy — as more innovators extend the life of products through better design and repairability; help consumers adopt waste-saving habits by scaling use of reusables; turn carbon pollution into everything from chemicals, fuels and plastic to spirits and textiles; and use physical waste streams to create better packaging, extend the shelf life of produce, develop climate-proof alternatives to our favorite treats, and produce clean energy.

‘Teaching a man to fish’

A growing number of organizations are moving beyond philanthropy and bolstering the resilience of human capital by expanding access to educational, employment, financial, digital, skills-development, financial-literacy, mental health and other enrichment opportunities and resources for underserved communities including women, people of color, refugees, differently abled, unhoused and formerly incarcerated people — creating deeper, longer-lasting impacts on people’s lives.

Turning tourism into a force for good

After business ground to a halt during the pandemic, many tour operators and other stakeholders began to rethink their approach to this lucrative industry that can take a massive social and environmental toll on destinations. With everything from decarbonized tours, alternative accommodation platforms and tourism pledges to increasing “impact tourism” through environmental preservation and rewilding initiatives, opportunities to engage with and learn from local communities, and ensuring tourism revenues go to local businesses — it’s easy to find more conscious, even regenerative approaches to travel that enrich the communities and landscapes of destinations, as well as travelers’ experiences.

Join us in October at SB’24 San Diego for the inaugural SB Resilience Summit (October 17) — where we’ll hear from AT&T, JLL, Premiums for the Planet and more business leaders preparing their organizations for adaptation and resilience in a tumultuous world. The summit will feature data-informed, strategic discussions on proactive measures organizations can take now to navigate uncertainty, mitigate risk, ensure continuity and future-proof their business for tomorrow's challenges today. Learn more here!