Supporters of environmental well-being and climate resilience are awakening and mobilizing – cities, states, business, academia, community-based organizations, and the military. They understand the imminent and long-term risks of climate deterioration and they are creating new structures beyond the top-down government policy efforts of the past.
This highly practical book provides a clear insight into these collaborative solutions by real organizations in real time. It demonstrates how people from disparate fields and stakeholders cooperate to address climate issues at ground level and reveals how this can be undertaken effectively. Through case studies of key organizations such as the NYC Sustainability Office, Detroiters Working for Environmental Justice, IBM, and West Point Military Academy, readers will understand each party’s role in a cooperative enterprise and the means by which they support climate resiliency, their institutional goals, and their communities.
Of particular value, the book illustrates the co-benefits of multi-party resilience planning: faster approval times; reduced litigation; ability to monetize benefits such as positive health outcomes; the economic benefits of cooperation (for example, capacity building through financing climate planning and resilience across public, private, and other sources of funding); and developing a shared perspective. The book will be of great interest to business managers, policymakers, and community leaders involved in combating climate change, and researchers and students of business, public affairs, policy, environment, climate, and urban studies.
Foreword
Introduction
Chapter 1: Cities and Climate Resilience (NYC Office of Sustainability)
Nilda M. Mesa, Director of the Urban Sustainability and Equity Planning Program of the Center for Sustainable Urban Development in the Earth Institute and adjunct professor at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs
Chapter 2: Communities: Teaming with Companies, Cities, States, Academia (The RAFT)
Elizabeth Andrews, Director of William & Mary Law School’s Virginia Coastal Policy Center, Tanya Denckla Cobb, Director of the Institute for Engagement & Negotiation at the University of Virginia, Michelle Covi, Old Dominion University in the Department of Ocean, Earth, and Atmospheric Sciences, and Angela M. King, Assistant Director of the William & Mary Law School’s Virginia Coastal Policy Center
Chapter 3: Climate Change and National Security: Opportunities for Learning and Cooperation
Colonel Mark R. Read, Professor at U.S. Military Academy and Head of the Department of Geography and Environmental Engineering at West Point
Chapter 4: Equity (Climate Justice in Detroit)
Kimberly Hill Knott, Chair of the Detroit Green Task Force Climate Action Committee and President of Future Insight Consulting, LLC
Chapter 5: Business: Building Climate-resilient Supply Chains (IBM Supply Chain)
Diana Dierks, IBM and Louis Ferretti, IBM
Chapter 6: Regional Deals, International Players (RGGI)
Augusta C. Wilson, Attorney at Climate Science Legal Defense Fund
Chapter 7: Conclusion
Biography
Ann Goodman, PhD, is Faculty Affiliate in the Graduate Center, City University of New York (CUNY), Advanced Science Research Center (ASRC), Environmental Sciences Initiative, with 30 years of international leadership at the intersection of business, finance, sustainability, climate, risk, resilience, as for- and nonprofit executive, entrepreneur, communicator, author, and educator.
Nilda Mesa is Visiting Lecturer at the Paris School of International Affairs, SciencesPo, and Adjunct Professor at the School of International and Public Affairs, Columbia University. She serves on the Board of Directors of United Therapeutics. Mesa is the former director of the New York City Mayor’s Office of Sustainability, and served in senior environmental roles at the US Environmental Protection Agency, the Pentagon, and the White House Council on Environmental Quality.
"This inspiring book points the way to a new kind of governance: collaborative, problem-solving, creative, and long-term oriented. Climate change is a complex crisis requiring deep and sustained changes across society – in how we produce and use energy, protect nature, adapt to environmental stresses, and ensure social justice. As described in the inspiring case studies, stakeholders across society are joining together to chart the way ahead. This book gives hope, guidance, and direction for the future." - Jeffrey D. Sachs, Director, Center for Sustainable Development, Columbia University President, United Nations Sustainable Development Solutions Network, author of The Age of Sustainable Development
"This book will be a must read for anyone working on climate resilience, providing critical insights into how to achieve our climate goals and preserve our communities, using collaboration and partnerships as key tools. Through practical case studies, the authors take the reader into key communities, from New York City to the West Point Military Academy, that are tackling their climate challenges, through collaboration, shared decision-making, and smart use of big data."- Sherri Goodman, Former Deputy Undersecretary of Defense (Environmental Security), Secretary-General, International Military Council on Climate & Security
"As I've observed over and over again in my career working with diverse entities--government, companies, nonprofit organizations--it can be a daunting task to resolve differences on a clean economy in the face of climate change. This book offers superb examples of real-life parties who accomplished this essential feat to save the planet." - Jigar Shah, Founder of SunEdison, co-Founder of Generate Capital, author of Creating Climate Wealth
"This book comes at a moment of consensus among advocates that there will not be effective climate policies until diverse stakeholders seek alignment on climate issues where they can, and also acknowledge their conflicting views and remedies. Collaboration is the watchword and Mesa and Goodman offer a guide to how untraditional partners have convened to achieve beneficial climate objectives." - Peggy M. Shepard, executive director, co-founder, WE ACT For Environmental Justice
"Climate change has been politically divisive at the national level, but solving this existential threat will require cooperation across multiple sectors of society at every level. This book by two experienced practitioners skillfully recounts remarkable examples where this cooperation has been achieved to the benefit of all. It will be an inspiration and a toolkit for those who are yearning for solutions." - Michael Gerrard, Professor and Director, Sabin Center for Climate Change Law, Columbia University
"Planning for resilience in the face of climate change requires planners to simultaneously work across disciplines and at multiple layers of community, city, and region. It challenges planners to respond in new ways and collaborate outside traditional formulas. This book shows, through case studies of both public and private initiatives, how we can achieve better outcomes and face up to this generational threat. Their lessons have broad applications, and should be incorporated in every plan to create more resilient communities."- Tom Wright, President, Regional Plan Association
"The only possible path for successfully stopping the impending catastrophe of climate change is through a coordinated and united effort that includes institutions from local governments and businesses to organizations that have the power to influence global policy. Ann Goodman and Nilda Mesa’s new volume, "Collaborating for Climate Resilience," expertly details the kind of reality-based collaborative approaches that marshal the science, resources and human will that are our best hope for meeting this still neglected challenge." - Professor David Rosenberg, Director, Zicklin Center for Corporate Integrity, Zicklin School of Business, Baruch College, City University of New York (CUNY)
"The war against climate change will be fought on many fronts by armies of stakeholders drawn from all sectors of society as this book illustrates in providing examples of successful victories built on collaboration and cooperation among a range of public and private sector players from local to national levels – it's a must read for the decade to come." - Eugenie L. Birch FAICP, Nussdorf Professor and co Director, Penn Institute for Urban Research, University of Pennsylvania
"At this moment of deep political division and mistrust, Nilda Mesa and Ann Goodman provide a different and hopeful path: cooperation and collaboration as the essential route to community resilience in the face of climate change. Mesa and Goodman provide a handbook for everyone who cares about the way forward." - Ken Alex, director, Project Climate at UC Berkeley’s Center for Law, Energy & Environment, former senior policy advisor, CA Governor Jerry Brown
"The sense of urgency and scale of the climate crisis can be paralyzing, especially in light of the impacts from the pandemic. This timely book helps clarify how we can all work collaboratively to make the transformation toward climate resilience that is urgently needed. The authors have assembled climate resilience case studies demonstrating the power of collaboration in a wide variety of scales, multiple perspectives and topics. The common lessons learned of seeking aligned values, collaboration, adaptability and accountability will resonate for anyone committed to a climate resilient future." - Mary Ann Lazarus, FAIA LEED Fellow, Architect and Consultant, Cameron MacAllister Group Sustainability Program Coordinator, University College Washington University in St. Louis
"Every urban planner in America should read this book." - Maxine Griffith, College of Fellows - American Institute of Certified Planners, Principal, Griffith Planning and Design, former Assistant Deputy Secretary US Department of Housing and Urban Affairs, former Executive Director, Philadelphia City Planning Commission and Deputy Mayor
"Mesa and Goodman do an amazing job of spotlighting the evolution of state and local government, not for profits and business to identify and implement climate solutions that provide both economic and social benefit at the local level, which have positive implications at the global level." - Ann Davlin, Director of Strategy, Dynamhex, former director of development, Carbon War Room
"There is extraordinary value in gathering emerging models and recognizing new systems that are critical in achieving long-term climate adaptation. This publication, Collaborating for Climate Change, assembles those emerging models as artifacts, proven structures, for further examination and potential replicating across the globe. Collaboration is key to creating a sustainable resilient future." - Illya Azaroff, FAIA, Global Director Resilient strategies +LAB Architect PLLC., Founding Co-Chair Design for Risk and Reconstruction AIA New York, Associate Professor New York City College of Technology
"Libraries are filled with books addressing the question of "what" to do to improve climate resilience. Rarer are books that tell us "how". Nilda Mesa and Ann Goodman’s Collaborating for Climate Resilience fills that critical void. Through organizational case studies they show us how government, business and civil society have effectively collaborated to address this urgent global challenge." - Elliott Sclar, Special Research Scholar & Co-Director, Center for Sustainable Urban Development, Earth Institute, Professor Emeritus of Urban Planning, Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation, Columbia University
"Collaborating for Climate Resilience takes on an aspect of the climate problem that doesn’t generate many headlines, but that is absolutely critical: how diverse organizations can effectively work together to adapt. It compiles case studies from state and local government, the military, and the private sector, analyzes both successes and failures, and draws instructive lessons for future climate leaders." - Adam Sobel, Professor, Applied Physics and Applied Mathematics and Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, Columbia University
