gb&d Issue 37: January/February 2016

Page 46

TRENDSETTERS

RESILIENCY EXPERTS

FLOOD PANEL An inside look at how the award-winning company is raising NYC’s resilience against the severest of natural disasters By Vincent Caruso

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january–february 2016

these undertakings may be, we still must safeguard against more urgent short-term environmental hazards. Our planet has suffered a whirlwind of extreme natural disasters in recent years, and many in the scientific community have suggested that we can only expect this trend to intensify. As essential as installations like solar panels and rainwater collection systems surely are, can they alone withstand the upheaval that could come as a result of the next Hurricane Sandy? The obvious answer is probably not. In that respect, it is imperative that we

PHOTO: PIXABAY

In the business of sustainable design and architecture, much of what we see focuses on shifting the sources of the built environment’s power demand to more naturally abundant resources. Through a variety of methodologies, eco-conscious developers and architects routinely aim to minimize Big Infrastructure’s consumption of water and electricity while vastly shrinking our collective carbon footprint. Industry cooperation with measures like these is important because they promise stability and preserve our natural environment in the long-term. But, valuable as

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