Focus on building resilience

Global society ASHRAE attended an event held at the White House focused on the importance of including resilience and future impacts of climate change in building codes. ASHRAE specialises on developing sustainable technology for the built environment and has many resources to improve building resilience. ASHRAE President David Underwood expressed the pleasure it was for them to participate and highlighted the importance of making use of the knowledge gained from previous natural disasters as well as anticipating the effects of climate change. Underwood also indicated that "the built environment industry strives to design, construct and operate buildings to withstand both natural disasters and man-made hazards". Mick Schwedler, ASHRAE‘s non-executive director, participated on a panel focused on codes and standards. As part of the effort, ASHRAE has committed to carry out various functions related to research, cooperation, education, implementation and development and revision of standards. Resources on resiliency have also been made available online. Further projects include a report released by ASHRAE and other leaders of America's design and construction industry on the progress made during the last 2 years, along with a set of guiding principles provided by The Resilience Building coalition.