“A resilient building is a building that can survive the natural and climate hazards its location is exposed to, and ideally continue its operations without disruption following an intense hazard event.
Sustainable development of the built environment needs to address future potential risks by adopting a whole-systems approach that ensures buildings are designed and engineered to be both resilient and green from the outset. This will ensure that buildings are fit for use in the future.
The Building Resilience Index (BRI) has been developed with the recognition that transformation towards resilience in the built environment will be achieved by changing the way we design, construct, retrofit, and finance buildings and how the value of resilience is transparently communicated among stakeholders.
It is an initiative of International Finance Corporation (IFC), a member of the World Bank Group and the largest global development institution focused on the private sector in emerging markets.
The IFC has been supporting the buildings sector’s low carbon transition with the EDGE (Excellence in Design for Greater Efficiencies) green buildings program.
The BRI is designed to complement EDGE, meeting the gap for a risk assessment rating system for the building sector identified in the World Bank Group’s Action Plan on Climate Change Adaptation and Resilience.”
It is highly recommended for use in the Philippines by urban and environmental planning experts, among them Dr. Nathaniel von Einsiedel and Dr. Emma Porio.
Benefitting multiple stakeholders
“The Index can be of use and benefit to multiple stakeholders:
Construction Developers
- Assess and improve resilience to site-specific natural hazards
- Disclose resilience rating to your financiers, insurers, and users
- Differentiate your brand as a developer of resilient buildings
Banks
- Make informed investment decisions based on climate risks on buildings
- Save time and resources on project evaluation processes
- Reduce property investor risk exposure
Insurance Companies
- Complement catastrophe modeling with a multi-hazard approach
- Review resilience rating of assets before underwriting
- Save time and resources on project evaluation processes
Governments & Local Authorities
- Create skills in the market for more resilient construction practices
- Reduce repetitive costs of post-disaster recovery and reconstruction
- Create an enabling environment for mainstreaming resilient buildings
Property Buyers & Owners
- Make informed investment or retrofit decisions
- Learn the resilience value of your investment
- Minimize operational disruptions and insurance costs
Occupants & Lessors
- Choose to live and work in safer buildings
- Minimize operational disruptions
- Reduce risk of losses due to natural disasters.”
The quoted text above are excerpts from the Building Resilience Index User Guide v. 1.3.0 published by the International Finance Corporation (IFC).
