IBHS Participates in AIA’s Resiliency Summit

The American Institute of Architects recently released the proceedings from its Resiliency Summit, which included participation by the Insurance Institute for Business & Home Safety (IBHS). The summit brought together about 75 participants to ask and begin to answer the question, “What can AIA do to advocate resilience in the nation and the world?” Architects see their role in resilience as including disaster preparedness, property loss mitigation, disaster response and recovery. The summit featured presentations by a number of architects, several of whom specifically mentioned IBHS’ FORTIFIED standards as a key to resilient design and construction. There also was an opportunity for participants to identify their top suggestions for architects to improve their role in resiliency. Among the ideas generated were:

Convincing clients about the resilience value proposition.
Better incorporating resilience into retrofitting.
Insurance and other incentives.
Ensuring that resilient designs are actually incorporated into buildings.
Helping citizens in their community understand risk.

IBHS looks forward to working closer with AIA and the design community to create more resilient communities with safer, stronger homes and businesses.