Resiliency is a Team Sport

Abby Ross, CEO, The Resiliency Company

I’ve spent the past three years cooking on the thesis of The Resiliency Company. What can we do to make America’s infrastructure more resilient to the changed weather and accelerating disasters? I’ve been relatively hesitant to share my perspective, preferring instead to listen and learn from the brilliant thinkers and doers that are helping humanity to adapt.

My approach to shaping my views has been “learning by doing.” And with programs in disaster recovery, housing, community infrastructure, and finance now launched, I feel The Resiliency Company’s doing has provided enough learning to start sharing some ideas. 

This is my first crack at an ongoing series of reflections on the resiliency ecosystem and our work at The Resiliency Company. I’m committed to this discipline of sharing learnings as they happen, developing the company’s voice, and practicing the narratives that weave together our activities. By doing so, I consent to being wrong in public and invite productive debate.

Earlier this month, The New York Times published The Hidden Risk to the Housing Market, making the case that the U.S. economy is barrelling towards a hit akin to the 2008 housing (and subsequent financial) crisis. The core argument is clearly laid out:

  • Weather-related disasters are causing material losses for insurers

  • They’re adjusting: increasing premiums, offering less coverage, or leaving high-risk areas all together

  • Home values are declining as properties become uninsurable

  • Homeowners with uninsurable homes can’t get mortgages

  • And existing mortgages are losing value threatening U.S. financial markets

This isn’t a boogey-man argument, we’re watching it play out across the country. For instance, since 2020, homeowners’ insurance premiums have increased by more than 30% and since 2018 the number of people with ‘last resort’ plans in California, Florida and Louisiana has doubled

Notably, the article was co-authored by two senators, a Republican from Montana and a Democrat from Rhode Island, and called for bipartisan support for broad, sweeping policy changes. It’s perhaps not surprising that two senators focused on the tools of their trade: policies. But policymaking is a notoriously slow and fraught process. So, while the proposed policies will undoubtedly have a massive impact on systemic resilience, communities cannot wait for policymaking to move at the speed at which the weather has changed and is changing. Nor do they need to. 

Becoming resilient is a team sport and there are many tangible steps we can all take: 

  • Everyone can take a moment to understand how the weather has changed and is changing where they live (the maps from our partner organization, Probable Futures, are a good place to start).

  • Homeowners can learn about the numerous evidence-backed engineering solutions for resilient homes, like fortified roofs or wildfire prepared homes

  • Municipal workers can take a long view on how changing weather and accelerating disasters shape assumptions in essential services like utilities and infrastructure.

  • Community leaders of all kinds can bring people together to talk about how the weather is getting weird and how to respond.

The point is not to let our senators off the hook or save the financial markets but to start building the society-wide muscles we’ll need to adapt to what the weather has changed to, and how it will change further. 

See you in two weeks.

Abby Ross
Founder & CEO, The Resiliency Company
abby@resiliency.com