A year of progress in 2021 — read about the year’s highlights and watch video — Infrastructure Resilience

So what did we get up to in 2021? Celebrate with us our year of progress for The Resilience Shift and our partners. Watch the short film and read a summary of our month by month highlights. Above all, thank you for your support of our work this past year.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HZdDoA3J2mc&t=11s

We share below more details of the highlights of 2021 for The Resilience Shift and in collaboration with its partners Resilience First and the International Coalition for Sustainable Infrastructure.

January 2021

A new year begins with the Covid pandemic continuing into 2021, and we have a busy year ahead of us.

Engineering a Safer Future podcasts and reports are launched in partnership with Lloyd’s Register Foundation

We take part in the GCA’s Climate Adaptation Summit 2021:

February 2021

We announced our strategic partnership with Resilience First

“The strategic partnership between our two organisations creates a platform with substantial convening power, reach and voice to help build resilience in businesses and the communities in which they operate.” Simon Collins, Chair Resilience First

We reflected on the Christchurch earthquakes 10 years on, as part of our ongoing work to ‘learn from crisis’ with an ‘in conversation’ podcast.

Addis Ababa workshops kicked off using City Water Resilience Approach and the OurWater digital governance tool, to be followed by Kigali, with reports and insights published over the year.

March 2021

The Resilience4Ports report and video launched with insights and areas for action.

Our partners Resilience First launched Decarbonisation and the Role of Technology webinar series

We used World Engineering Day to launch a new series of climate resilience stories shared by ICE/WFEO — China, Australia, Canada, France, Kenya and the UK

Our partner the Coalition on Urban Transitions launched the Seizing the Urban Opportunity report with our support. This main launch and key messages was followed during the year with other launches sharing the detailed country reports for China, India, Indonesia, Brazil, Mexico and South Africa

April 2021

Wood and The Resilience Shift announced our strategic partnership to showcase resilience through a new awards initiative. The initial website was launched in July as Resilience Realized.

May 2021

We shared different perspectives on resilience from some of the Resilience Shift Board — Ruth Boumphrey, Peter Chamley, Jo da Silva, Michael Bruno

We take part in a debate on net carbon zero and the role of the engineering community at the ICE, ASCE, CSCE Triennial

We step up our contribution to the Race to Resilience with two staff seconded to the Climate Champions team

Our partner Resilience First publishes a number of innovative resources for business audiences over the year including:

June 2021

We contribute to the British Science Association’s For Thought series and Seth Schultz is one of more than 300 senior leaders brought together to interrogate the key scientific and social challenges facing society

We take part in London Climate Action Week:

• We showcased our Infrastructure Pathways guidance for climate resilient infrastructure, led by ICSI.
• We shared Resilience4Ports as part of an expert panel lead by the Port of London Authority
• We focused on energy resilience at an event with the International Energy Agency.

The Tech4Resilience series launched with the support of Siemens

July 2021

Our partner ICSI’s publications on engineering-led change are shared over the year as action tracks deliver

ICSI joins as co-host for Sustainable Infrastructure webinar series

We take part in the Africa Cities and Built Environment Day:

August 2021

The IPCC Report is published with evidence that climate change is worsening. Scientists are observing ‘widespread, rapid and intensifying’ changes in the Earth’s climate in every region and across the whole climate system.

Reinforcing the growing need for resilience building at all levels, Seth Schultz, CEO, The Resilience Shift, comments: “With the critical global actions on climate starting to accelerate, it is time too for all to urgently consider how they transform what they do, build more resilience, and contribute positively to a safe, sustainable and resilient future.”

We share our work on urban water resilience at World Water Week. We co-host a keynote on city resilience and share how the City Water Resilience Approach is being used. Sessions also feature DC Water who we have referenced in our case study series on resilience success stories.

September 2021

The WMO published its data on weather-related disasters

“The number of weather, climate and water extremes are increasing and will become more frequent and severe in many parts of the world as a result of climate change,” WMO Secretary-General Prof. Petteri Taalas.

Seth Schultz, CEO, The Resilience Shift comments, “This report highlights how infrastructure must be prepared for the threats we can anticipate, such as the extreme weather disasters that are shown to be increasing, and respond to those we cannot predict or avoid.”

The COP Resilience Hub is announced, and website launched. We are one of three managing partners.

The BuildingtoCOP6 Coalition announces its plans for COP as its website is launched. The Resilience Shift is part of the #BuildingToCOP26 Coalition — a group of business and government networks focused on sustainability in the built environment and its potential in accelerating climate action.

Our partner Resilience First hosts a significant webinar on Lessons learned for the built environment from Grenfell Tower Fire

A new industry film on ports is released with contribution by our Resilience4Ports initiative. The film, Gateways to Growth, is launched at International Shipping Week by the British Ports Association.

Our film series Resilience Engineered is completed with the three episode trailers released.

Our partner ICSI hosts a focused webinar on guidance tools and standards and seeks further input into this work.

New Race to Resilience initiatives are announced at NYCW, including Resilience First and ICSI as partner initiatives.

We explore energy resilience in partnership with IEA and Arup and several resources are published

Africa Climate Week was an opportunity to share progress on the City Water Resilience Approach in Africa, and a reflection on our work to learn from Cape Town Day Zero.

October 2021

We take part in the Innovate4Cities global conference:

• We shared the City Water Resilience Approach and its implementation in cities worldwide.
• We explored how resilient ports can unlock city resilience
• We showcased Infrastructure Pathways
• ICSI Innovation action track outputs were presented along with insights from the ICSI white paper on finance
• Resilience First shared its white paper on decarbonisation and the role of technology
• Resilience First convened city and business leaders to discuss our collaboration developing IPCC report summaries for urban policy makers.

The COP Resilience Hub event programme opens with huge support

November 2021

We take part in COP26 with a number of events and partnerships:

December 2021

The COP26 Resilience Hub synthesis report and youtube recordings of all events are published by the Managing Partners.

We partnered with UNDRR and UCL to host a Masterclass on Stress Testing for building Infrastructure Resilience

Resilience First hosted a briefing session for business on the IPCC report and planned summary for urban policy makers.

The ICE Brunel lecture tour continued all year with Seth Schultz — East Asia, Europe, Middle East, Americas, Africa, South Asia, South-East Asia, Australia. The closing event will take place in January 2022.

Thank you to colleagues, partners and our global community of interest for your support of our work.

Originally published at https://www.resilienceshift.org on December 30, 2021.