• woodrow wilson center
  • ecsp

New Security Beat

Subscribe:
  • rss
  • mail-to
  • Who We Are
  • Topics
    • Population
    • Environment
    • Security
    • Health
    • Development
  • Columns
    • China Environment Forum
    • Choke Point
    • Dot-Mom
    • Navigating the Poles
    • New Security Broadcast
    • Reading Radar
  • Multimedia
    • Water Stories (Podcast Series)
    • Backdraft (Podcast Series)
    • Tracking the Energy Titans (Interactive)
  • Films
    • Water, Conflict, and Peacebuilding (Animated Short)
    • Paving the Way (Ethiopia)
    • Broken Landscape (India)
    • Scaling the Mountain (Nepal)
    • Healthy People, Healthy Environment (Tanzania)
  • Publications
  • Events
  • Contact Us

NewSecurityBeat

The blog of the Wilson Center's Environmental Change and Security Program
  • On the Beat

    Sustainable Infrastructure: Building Resilience in a Changing World

    September 8, 2017 By Antony Martel
    Brooklyn-Infrastructure

    The United States currently faces an infrastructure crisis, as well as a growing climate crisis. Taking a sustainable approach to infrastructure could help address both problems, argued participants in a recent webinar conducted by the National Council for Science and the Environment, in partnership with the Security & Sustainability Forum. 

    The United States currently has an approximately $5 trillion infrastructure deficit, said Zachary Schafer, co-founder and executive director of Infrastructure Week. “Addressing infrastructure shortcomings provides us with a once in a generation opportunity to solve, or at least mitigate, many environmental challenges.”  

    “At its most fundamental level, [infrastructure is] the basic physical and organizational structures that facilitate the smooth functioning of a society,” said Schafer. It is important to remember that “Infrastructure is intrinsically connected to the environment and the natural world.”

    Peter Walker, dean of Chatham University’s Falk School of Sustainability, said that sustainability is a holistic way of thinking about a mega-system to better understand how we interact economically with the environment, and how we organize ourselves as a society. “Inevitably, sustainability is about change. It’s about moving society from one state to another,” said Walker.

    Incorporating sustainability into infrastructure design will require a collaborative approach between academia and business. “Academia has a role to play in promoting sustainable infrastructure beyond teaching expertise. It should create a voting public that demands such infrastructure,” said Jay Antle, a webinar viewer from Johnson County Community College.

    According to Shirley Vincent, director of environmental and sustainability education research programs for the National Council for Science and the Environment, the results of its latest report show that  “slightly more than half of all institutions of higher education offer programs on environmental sustainability.”

    These themes will be further explored at the NCSE 2018 Conference in January, “The Science, Business, and Education of Sustainable Infrastructure: Building Resilience in a Changing World,” said Michelle Wyman, NCSE’s executive director.

    Read More:

    • Engineering solutions to the infrastructure and scarcity challenges in a world of seven billion
    • Big money, big politics, and big infrastructure: Florida confronts climate change’s deep challenges
    • Dawn of the “smart city”: Perspectives from New York, Ahmedabad, São Paulo, and Beijing

    Sources: Infrastructure Week, National Council for Science and the Environment, Security & Sustainability Forum

    Photo Credit: Summer Streets 2011: Brooklyn Bridge, August 2011, courtesy of New York City Department of Transportation

    Topics: climate change, education, environment, Infrastructure, On the Beat, urbanization

Join the Conversation

  • RSS
  • subscribe
  • facebook
  • G+
  • twitter
  • iTunes
  • podomatic
  • youtube
Tweets by NewSecurityBeat

Trending Stories

  • unfccclogo1
  • Pop at COP: Population and Family Planning at the UN Climate Negotiations

Featured Media

Backdraft Podcast

play Backdraft
Podcasts

More »

What You're Saying

  • Clionadh Thumbnail New Security Broadcast | Clionadh Raleigh on Reframing “Climate Security”
    Merle Lefkoff: This is excellent new thinking. At the same time, it also reflects an optimism about resilience and...
  • promulgation Tackling Youth Unemployment, Instability in Kenya
    Carlos: The site is currently unavailable
  • farmers are planting sweet potato seeds in the fields in Hebei Province, China Microplastics in Soil – Small Size Big Impact on U.S. and Chinese Agriculture
    ♥️MAGACat♥️ We Ultra Win!!!: Biden needs to give us all new washing machines. And masks for the washing machines. "changing the...

Related Stories

No related stories.

  • woodrow
  • ecsp
  • RSS Feed
  • YouTube
  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Home
  • Who We Are
  • Publications
  • Events
  • Wilson Center
  • Contact Us
  • Print Friendly Page

© Copyright 2007-2022. Environmental Change and Security Program.

Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. All rights reserved.

Developed by Vico Rock Media

Environmental Change and Security Program

Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars

Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center

  • One Woodrow Wilson Plaza
  • 1300 Pennsylvania Ave., NW
  • Washington, DC 20004-3027

T 202-691-4000