Luke Leung, SOM Director of Sustainable Engineering, contributed his expertise to the newly adopted LEED® pilot credits for Resilient Design. Spearheaded by the Resilient Design Institute, the suite of three credits account for design features in buildings that anticipate factors which will impact building performance, such as natural disasters and climate change.
In order to receive the credits, a project team must identify and document the risks that could possibly affect the site and implement one of two resilient planning strategies: Climate Resilient Planning or Emergency Preparedness Planning, with specific requirements for flooding, tornadoes, earthquakes, tsunamis, wildfire, drought, landslides, and terrorism. A central goal of these pilot credits is to bring awareness to the importance of designing for resilience in terms of both short-term emergencies and the long-term effects of climate change.