Updates from The Resiliency Company
Follow along here for regular updates on The Resiliency Company’s efforts.
March 2025
March was an intense month of exploration and discovery to understand opportunities to rebuild with resiliency in Los Angeles after the devastating fires earlier this year. Based on feedback from the insurance industry, builders, and local government, we learned that The Resiliency Company can play a critical role in mobilizing the funding required for LA to live safely amidst a time of accelerating wildfire risk.
While we have several exciting initiatives, I’m going to focus this March update on our work in Los Angeles.
Strategic Pillar 1: Tell a compelling story about resiliency
The fires in LA triggered a wave of news and storytelling - from political jockeying, calls to reform the insurance industry, and implications for the future of the city. Amid this coverage, we’ve looked for opportunities to help decision makers understand future risk, see that there are viable solutions, and ultimately value resiliency as a tenet of designing infrastructure.
One example of a storyline we’ve been collaborating on (behind the scenes with our role becoming more public soon) is how a new era of modern architecture can center around designing for risk through resilient design while still incorporating culture and beauty: Post LA Wildfires, Leading Architects Reimagine the Case Study Program via Architecture Digest.
We’re supporting this program through market insights and believe it’s important to build a groundswell within LA to leverage impactful storytelling to make resiliency more tangible.
Strategic Pillar 2: Create Conditions for Success
Putting The Resiliency Company at the center of how to “finance resiliency at scale” has given us a clear idea of how we can add value in places like Los Angeles. Alongside Insurance for Good, we’ve been testing the idea of launching a fund of funds to provide homeowners in LA with grants and/or loans to rebuild to a resilient wildfire standard, making their homes safer and more insurable.
We are still validating this concept, but see a path forward to launching in the next 6 weeks. There’s appetite, opportunity, momentum, and a narrow window to pull this off - so we’re moving quickly.
Onward ,
Abby
February 2024
February was about setting strategies in motion for how The Resiliency Company can mobilize the funding, policies, and innovation mechanisms required to enable communities to live safely amidst a time of accelerating climate disasters and hazards.
Resiliency Co’s work is organized around two strategic pillars: 1) Tell a compelling story about resiliency, and 2) Create conditions for success. Here’s what we’ve recently been up to across each of these pillars:
1: Where we told the “resiliency” story this month, to help make a compelling case
Recent events and ecosystem highlights:
Adapt Unbound Showcase: About The Resiliency Company | Abby Ross, CEO of The Resiliency Company, was featured in the 'Unbound Showcase' interview series with pioneers of climate adaptation and resilience solutions.
FirstStreet Forecast 2025 event | Spencer Glendon (Probable Futures) and Carolyn Kousky (Insurance for Good) spoke on a panel with First Street to present on the macroeconomic risks, insurance challenges, and repercussions of climate disasters.
Resiliency Co hosted a Bay Area Resiliency Co Happy Hour with 24 orgs in attendance in Sebastopol, CA. More to come in other areas of the U.S. soon! Sign up for a future resiliency gathering with us here.
Recent content from The Resiliency Company portfolio and partners:
What is Resiliency? These 10 examples prove the point, The Epicenter
Puerto Rico’s Innovative Use of Parametric Insurance, Insurance for Good blog
Electric Grid resiliency, The Epicenter
Deep Dive: Opportunities for Resilience in the Municipal Bond Market, The Epicenter
2: Create Conditions for Success
To incentivize the conditions that will enable adaptation that yields resiliency, The Resiliency Co. is currently focusing on three key markets that have much to gain by investing in resilient infrastructure: 1) insurance 2) municipal bonds, and 3) commercial real estate. We are working within these markets to find places where Resiliency Co. can influence how decisions are made and find opportunities for programmatic work that will yield more capital to flow to resilient infrastructure investments:
Insurance - How might Los Angeles ensure that their rebuild is insurable?
Municipal Bonds - How might we rally state and local governments to consider climate risk and build more resilient infrastructure?
Real Estate - How can a commercial real estate investment ensure resiliency is a core tenet of how a new building gets designed, financed, built, and insured?
Stay tuned for more to come!
Best,
Abby, CEO of The Resiliency Company
January 2024
This year at The Resiliency Company is about creating the gravitational pull to unite capital allocators around resiliency.
We’re only a month into the year and January has already been long and eventful–the fires that devastated Los Angeles were a harrowing reminder of the importance of The Resiliency Company’s work. Take a look at The Epicenter’s early insights from the LA fires that highlights the importance of rebuilding with resiliency.
Resiliency Co’s work is organized around two strategic pillars: 1) Tell a compelling story about resiliency, and 2) Create conditions for success. Here’s what we’ve recently been up to across each of these pillars:
1: Where we told the “resiliency” story this month, to help make a compelling case
The Epicenter, The Resiliency Company’s independent publication, continues to publish compelling content on the drivers leading to increased costs and impacts from extreme weather events. As the publication grows, we’re beginning to recruit field correspondents and emerging voices who are advocating for resiliency across various infrastructure industries. The Epicenter seeks to build trust and credibility through high-quality, accessible content that captures attention, sustains engagement, and inspires action.
Abby went to Davos and spoke on a panel about the energy transition and grid resilience and met several interesting infrastructure investors. .
2: Create Conditions for Success
To incentivize the conditions that will enable adaptation that yields resiliency, The Resiliency Co. is currently focusing on three key markets that have much to gain by investing in resilient infrastructure: 1) the insurance industry, 2) the municipal bonds market, and 3) the commercial real estate ecosystem.
In the commercial real estate category, Resiliency Co. is leading a project with Ryan Companies, JLL, Urban Land Institute and other ecosystem leaders to publish The Climate Risk Playbook for Commercial Real Estate & Construction. Informed by industry leaders (owners, investors, designers, constructors, and insurers), the Playbook will provide a partnership-based process to safeguard the long-term interests of property owners and end-users in an era of environmental uncertainty.
In the insurance category, The Resiliency Company launched a formal collaboration with Insurance for Good to lead pilots on how insurers can: 1) increase the availability and affordability of insurance by actively investing in climate resilient infrastructure, and 2) create new insurance programs and products that incentivize investments in resiliency.
Stay tuned for more to come!
Best,
Abby, CEO of The Resiliency Company
December 2024
What a wild ride 2024 has been - full of critical pivots that led us to where we are today. I’m using this month’s update to reflect on our accomplishments this year and what you can expect from us in 2025.
Why we’re doing this work
Rising temperatures, extreme weather, increased flooding events, and other disasters have impacted 90% of counties in the U.S. in the last decade. Over that same period, the U.S. spent $1.1 trillion rebuilding communities after disasters. Today, a $1 billion disaster hits the U.S. every 18 days. By 2030, they are on track to hit the U.S. every week.
How we rebuild our infrastructure is the defining challenge of today, for generations to come. Achieving Net Zero is not enough for the trillions in disasters between today and 2050. We must adapt so that what gets built is resilient to these perils. It is the safest and brightest path forward.
That’s why we created The Resiliency Company – to mobilize as much investment into critical infrastructure that will help communities withstand the impact of forthcoming disasters and hazards.
How we got here
To start the year, The Resiliency Company officially incorporated and spun out from Network for Good - recognizing the need for a new entity to support our organization’s increased scope and ambition. The Resiliency Company is now the parent organization with Network for Good as a subsidiary.
The first half of this year, we were expansive in our search to solidify our role…
Q1: Explored ways to make good on our mission, including everything from becoming a Holding Company, launching a fund, setting up an incubator, and how to align capital with community needs.
Q2: Focused and realized that the scope of this opportunity needs trillions in investment and our best structure was as an influencer of capital vs. a direct allocator.
…in the second half of the year, we then honed in on a vision and strategy:
Q3: Put “climate resiliency” at the center of our strategy with our brand, honing in on the strategy for how we build influence with capital allocators.
Q4: Launched The Epicenter and decided to fiscally sponsor Probable Futures as a mission-aligned organization. We also started laying the groundwork for getting involved with infrastructure projects that are in response to climate hazards as a way to test and learn how to influence capital.
Some of the key learnings from 2024:
Storytelling: People see risk protection more than opportunity. We need crisp, specific examples of resiliency.
Our timing is an asset: Adaptation and resiliency is growing in popularity.
We’re attracting amazing people: Our new brand, ambitious focus, and collaborative vibe is leading to inbound opportunities, strong talent, and interest for partnership.
Financing “resiliency” is a market gap: This is a field with known solutions but a lack of ways to finance. For example, who pays when everyone benefits?
Focus for 2025
In 2025, we're going to be focusing on building the gravitational pull to unite capital allocators around resiliency. This means we will be…
Validating that we can influence infrastructure investments to prioritize climate resilience. We’re actively getting involved in infrastructure opportunities by raising financing and funding, measuring success in terms of capital raised and institutional investors influenced.
Growing The Epicenter to be a strong ecosystem platform for telling the resiliency story across infrastructure industries.
Positioning The Resiliency Company as “do-ers” with a formal launch and push for awareness. We will measure success in coverage and inbound leads for climate resiliency projects.
I remain grateful and energized that I have the greatest job in the world…working with a brilliant team on an ambitious and important mission.
Onward!
-Abby, CEO of The Resiliency Company