NRMCA Contributes to NIST Community Resilience Planning Guide

Communities built to last start with comprehensive planning. For the past year, NRMCA Senior Vice President of Sustainable Development Lionel Lemay and Tien Peng, vice president of sustainability, have played an active role in the National Institute of Standards and Technology’s (NIST) resilience planning for the built environment. Along with other stakeholders, this planning identified consistent performance goals and metrics for buildings and infrastructure to enhance community resilience, culminating in the release of the Community Resilience Planning Guide (Guide) out for public comment last month. The Guide will identify practices to enhance resilience and gaps that must be addressed to enhance community resilience. It will also provide a starting point for stakeholders to advance from current practices and will provide the basis for convening a Community Resilience Panel (CRP) representing the broad spectrum of the stakeholder community, including NRMCA.

Concrete structures can play a vital role in strong communities. Builders, architects and designers have come to recognize that more durable public buildings, private homes, and businesses often built with concrete to resist damage from natural disasters, reduce the impact entire communities have on our planet.