Preparation for a World of Resilience Investment

Engineers are at the heart of planning, design, and construction of resilient communities. Pressures associated with climate change and extreme weather events are leading to competing priorities for resources that can be used to reduce risks. The global investment community is preparing to do its part in financing high impact resilience projects. Engineers who understand and are prepared to equip their projects to address finance screening criteria will have an advantage in seeing their projects move forward. Client agencies will turn to their engineers to gather, organize, and submit data that is responsive to finance screening criteria. This session will focus on screening criteria associated with the Urban Resilience Fund (TURF) sponsored by the Rockefeller Foundation. Successful completion of their criteria will position projects as candidates for financing via a billion dollar investment pool. Implementation of the TURF is expected to trigger “copy cats” within the global ESG, sustainability, and resilience investment sector that would grow available capital exponentially. This panel will include representatives of TURF management, the professionals behind the development of the screening criteria, and project engineers who have applied it. They will describe the screen and individual efforts put forth by civil engineers to create complete applications. Attendees will leave the session equipped to submit complete applications to TURF and post-finance reporting.