The United States presently faces daunting challenges from terrorism, a slow economy, and environmental degradation. Moreover, despite the vast sums expended to deter these threats under an “all-hazards” frameworks of counterterrorism, emergency management, and environmental protection, each threat is often seen as a unique disease, and not a symptomatic expression of overall fragility in society. Maximizing the multi-use nature of green technology, I believe a shift in the general understanding of resiliency is needed to incorporate a distributed, localized “green resiliency” initiatives that will change both the tactical planning and strategic direction of disaster management. Linking green architectural design and building practices with a “bottom-up” approach to disaster management can create long-term resiliency while spurring economic activity and promoting a clean environment.

At present, resiliency is almost exclusively associated with the macro-level physical or electronic nodes of the nation’s infrastructure – bridges, highways, ports, power plants, etc. With most of this critical infrastructure privately owned, implementing the National Infrastructure Protection Plan depends heavily on cooperative business partners and local governments. The NIPP is focused heavily on identifying threat identification, foreknowledge of shared protection responsibilities, and target hardening, and replacing these assets once lost or damaged.

Despite bringing a wide range of stakeholders together, the NIPP makes almost no reference to resiliency in the localized, day-to-day aspects of citizens’ lives. Response efforts are inherently local – schools, government buildings, businesses, community centers and sports arenas often serve as both “points-of-service” for citizens needing help and as operational bases for responders. While methods for “hardening” and securing such structures are promoted heavily by DHS, the Building Security Council and others, comprehensive plans to actively involve these structures and the people that use them in the return to normalcy are limited.

I believe resiliency simply means "the ability to 'bounce back.'" It is more than just recovering to the previous status quo of having the lights on the Wi-Fi running. It is about getting knocked down, getting up, and improving on the previous system as you regain your footing. Resiliency is a way of life - everything from solid physical structures, supply chain management, electron pathways and computer systems, to urban planning and citizens' outlook on the functions and forms of society, and should be treated as such by government, especially DHS.

Green architecture and engineering practices are widely utilized and are increasingly chosen by consumers. Certifications schemes such as the Energy Star labeling and Leadership in Environmental and Energy Design (LEED) certification from the US Green Building Council have done much to standardize technologies, coordinate industry-wide efforts, disseminate best practices, and create measurable performance ratings. The specific recognition that green technology can directly benefit tactical security concerns has yet to be made by the federal government.

 Fig. 1 – Some Resilient Applications of Green Technology

Many green technologies, despite social benefits and long-term cost savings, remain prohibitively expensive at the initial purchasing stage, especially when viewed in terms of benefiting only a single purchaser; for instance, a county school board or single-family home. When actively accounted for in local response plans and augmented by traditional methods of disaster recovery, the relative cost of green technology decreases with a dramatic rise in response capacity. For example, renovating a high school with the above technologies could allow for:

• Cost-sharing and/ or grant matching among the Departments of Homeland Security, Energy and Education, the EPA, state and local government, private and private sector interests.
• Enhanced autonomy under the 72-hour “stand-alone” window for local entities.
• Economic stimulus throught equipment installation and maintenance via local businesses.
• Development of specialized vocational/ technical education program(s) at the school for the installation, maintenance and use of on-site green technology.

 For the Department, the key steps to implementing this framework will be:

1)      Establishing and promoting guidelines for designing and implementing “green resiliency” in architecture and policy, and

2)      Coordinating and ensuring adequate cost-sharing opportunities with federal, local and non-governmental stakeholders for local entities.

This approach offers several distinct benefits to previous resilience efforts. First, it is scalable, and can be incorporated into current local disaster management efforts, particularly at the municipal and neighborhood level. Second, it can be implemented with commercially available technologies that will retain long-term value and utility. Finally, it provides tangible benefits to citizens even if never utilized in an emergency response capacity.

I believe we can fuse existing and well-established knowledge of infrastructure protection and emergency management with cutting-edge green design principles, thus presenting the Department of Homeland Security as a pro-active organization with innovative strategies to secure and improve the physical, economic and social strength of the country.