by Brianna Crandall — December 15, 2017 — During the annual Greenbuild Conference and Expo last month, LEED administrator Green Business Certification Inc. (GBCI) announced its adoption of the RELi resilience standard. First developed by the Institute for Market Transformation to Sustainability (MTS) and its Capital Markets Partnership (CMP) coalition in 2012, the RELi standard includes a robust integrative process, acute hazard preparation and adaptation along with chronic risk mitigation at the building and neighborhood scale.
GBCI, in conjunction with the US Green Building Council (USGBC), is now leading the further refinement of RELi to synthesize the LEED Resilient Design pilot credits with RELi’s Hazard Mitigation and Adaptation credits. GBCI and the RELi resilience standard will work together to develop buildings and communities that offer greater adaptability and resilience to weather and natural disasters.
Mahesh Ramanujam, president and CEO, USGBC and GBCI, stated:
The increasing frequency of dramatic events has brought an even greater urgency to create buildings and communities that are better adapted to a changing climate and better able to bounce back from disturbances and interruptions. We are committed to scaling RELi to become a national and international rating system managed by USGBC and its partner Green Business Certification Inc.
A steering committee will be created to refine RELi so as to bring resilience into actionable, mainstream thinking for the design, construction and operation of buildings; for the creation of resilient communities and infrastructure; and for the well-being of people worldwide.
The Resilience Steering Committee will be chaired by Doug Pierce, the principal investigator for the RELi 1.0 standard and senior associate at Perkins+Will. Alex Wilson will be vice chair, and Michael Italiano and George Vallone of MTS/CMP will provide expert knowledge to guide future improvements to the RELi standard.
Doug Pierce remarked:
It is an honor to be part of this critical partnership with the USGBC support of RELi to help rapidly commercialize resilience, the most important, disruptive and expensive activity ever faced by mankind.
Steering committee members will merge thought leadership from some of the world’s most progressive designers and thinkers with the global organizing capacity of the USGBC, creating “unprecedented” potential for a transformation to resilient design in the market. The steering committee will include many members of the LEED Resilience Working Group.
Alex Wilson, Resilient Design Institute, BuildingGreen, and co-chair of the USGBC Resilience Working Group, added:
This move shows the leadership role that GBCI and USGBC are taking with resilience. Events this year in Houston, Florida, Puerto Rico and Northern California have amplified just how important resilience is for our nation’s well-being. Wilson was instrumental in the development of the Resilient Design pilot credits in LEED, which are being folded into RELi.
RELi’s development was led foundationally by the global architecture firm of Perkins+Will, with Eaton Corporation, Deloitte Consulting and Impact Infrastructure providing vital content expertise and critical assessment. RELi is a national consensus standard, developed through an American National Standards Institute (ANSI) process, focused on creating resilient buildings and communities.
Learn more about RELi standard in the online RELi Resilience Action List and Credit Catalog.
