“[The authors] argue that with more integration and cooperation between businesses, governments and communities, a more sustainable economy is possible.” —The Environmental Magazine We find ourselves between a rock and a hot place—compelled by the intertwined forces of peak oil and climate change to reinvent our economic life at a much more local and regional scale. The Resilience Imperative argues for a major SEE (social, ecological, economic) change as a prerequisite for replacing the paradigm of limitless economic growth with a more decentralized, cooperative, steady-state economy. The authors present a comprehensive series of strategic questions within the broad areas of: Energy sufficiency Local food systems Interest-free financing Affordable housing and land reform Sustainable community development Each section is complemented by case studies of pioneering community initiatives rounded out by a discussion of transition factors and resilience reflections. With a focus on securing and sustaining change, this provocative book challenges deeply embedded cultural assumptions. Profoundly hopeful and inspiring, The Resilience Imperative affirms the possibilities of positive change as it is shaped by individuals, communities, and institutions learning to live within our ecological limits. “Resilience is the watchword for our dawning era of economic and environmental instability . . . The Resilience Imperative is exactly what’s needed to get us moving in the right direction.” —Richard Heinberg, author of Power: Limits and Prospects for Human Survival “Exceptionally valuable—in vision, in strategic understanding, in concrete ways to build forward. A handbook for a morally meaningful and sustainable future!” —Gar Alperovitz, author of America Beyond Capitalism

Argues that the economy can only be improved through major changes that will make it more decentralized and cooperative, including such novel ideas as energy self-sufficiency, interest-free financing, affordable housing, local food systems and more. Original.

No person or place is immune from disasters or disaster-related losses. Infectious disease outbreaks, acts of terrorism, social unrest, or financial disasters in addition to natural hazards can all lead to large-scale consequences for the nation and its communities. Communities and the nation thus face difficult fiscal, social, cultural, and environmental choices about the best ways to ensure basic security and quality of life against hazards, deliberate attacks, and disasters. Beyond the unquantifiable costs of injury and loss of life from disasters, statistics for 2011 alone indicate economic damages from natural disasters in the United States exceeded $55 billion, with 14 events costing more than a billion dollars in damages each. One way to reduce the impacts of disasters on the nation and its communities is to invest in enhancing resilience-the ability to prepare and plan for, absorb, recover from and more successfully adapt to adverse events. Disaster Resilience: A National Imperative addresses the broad issue of increasing the nation's resilience to disasters. This book defines "national resilience", describes the state of knowledge about resilience to hazards and disasters, and frames the main issues related to increasing resilience in the United States. It also provide goals, baseline conditions, or performance metrics for national resilience and outlines additional information, data, gaps, and/or obstacles that need to be addressed to increase the nation's resilience to disasters. Additionally, the book's authoring committee makes recommendations about the necessary approaches to elevate national resilience to disasters in the United States. Enhanced resilience allows better anticipation of disasters and better planning to reduce disaster losses-rather than waiting for an event to occur and paying for it afterward. Disaster Resilience confronts the topic of how to increase the nation's resilience to disasters through a vision of the characteristics of a resilient nation in the year 2030. Increasing disaster resilience is an imperative that requires the collective will of the nation and its communities. Although disasters will continue to occur, actions that move the nation from reactive approaches to disasters to a proactive stance where communities actively engage in enhancing resilience will reduce many of the broad societal and economic burdens that disasters can cause.

"We have to adapt to the impacts that, unfortunately, we can no longer avoid", said President Obama at the UN Climate Summit in September 2014. Adaptation and resilience are now a must in both academic research and international bodies. A fashionable concept, resilience's polysemy sparks many debates on its uses and operational relevance. This book bridges the increasing divide between academic research and the latest planning innovations, offering practical and conceptual insights for practitioners, researchers and students. Magali Reghezza-Zitt and Samuel Rufat present a cross-disciplinary, state-of-the-art debate and critical analysis of the social, spatial, practical and political implications of resilience. - Offers a critical approach of resilience, based on a wide range of case studies - Provides insights ranging from the most recent theoretical issues to the most practical engineering innovations - Links the latest cross-disciplinary academic insights with the up-to-date, practical innovations

The power of resilience within organizations and can transform an average company into a powerhouse. Yet, even in times of rapid disruptive change, there is no manual for building resilient organizations. This book is that manual.Resilience, left to individuals, will only ever be built by people in the moments that require them to dig deep and find it. The real power in building resilience before we need it, lies in what we can accomplish when our organizations become resilient. This book presents a simple framework for leaders and organizations to prepare for sustainable results in the face of rapid, disruption.The power for organizations lies in the act of methodically and collaboratively building a collective resilience framework to increase their ability to thrive in the face of complex challenges for which the answer, and often even the definition of the problem itself, may not be obvious. These challenges frequently require both the organization and the leaders within them to make trade-offs in values and loyalties. Often, an individual's resilience will 'get them through' such changes, but a more effective approach is to build organizational resilience before we need it. Building resilience involves intentional preparation to increase our ability to emerge from challenges better equipped to deal with them than we were in the past--a transformation into a stronger self. For organizations in an environment of rapid, disruptive change, there is often no 'back' to bounce to after disruption, because by the time they right themselves things have changed. This book presents a simple framework that can be applied to both individuals and organizations. It's proven and it works.Written in our 'pull no punches' style, Resilience: It's Not About Bouncing Back begins by explaining the case for resilience, how building it is not only possible, but imperative for creating successful leaders and organizations in today's rapidly changing world. The book goes on to present the our proven, proprietary LeaderShift Resilience Framework drawing on real examples and pointed exercises to deliver a down-to-earth strategy for building resilient leaders and companies. Connecting the dots between Resilience and ground-breaking work on Adaptive Leadership from Harvard's Ron Heifetz and others, we've intertwined our own wisdom gleaned from years spent tackling these issues with leaders across the globe. The result is a candid, insightful and easily absorbed template that helps organizations banish 'change fatigue' once and for all and instead be energized and elevated by disruption - one leader at a time.Spanning a combined five decades of corporate leadership positions and consulting work focused on organization restructuring and leadership development, Cynthia Barlow and Jennifer Eggers have seen thousands of organizations struggle in the face of change. They have seen it all ¬- the good and the bad - and believe that resilience is the key ingredient to building healthy, thriving leaders and organizations. Cynthia runs C3 Conversations, Inc., a boutique consulting firm out of Toronto, coaching leaders and delivering life-changing personal-growth programs for over 30 years. Jennifer runs LeaderShift Insights, a firm focused on building adaptive leadership and alignment at some of the most recognized brands in the world. She founded her firm after serving in several leadership roles for Fortune 50 companies.

All systems break down. Some bounce back, others do not. This is a book about why. Covering business, economic, geographic and social systems, Zolli uncovers a wealth of absorbing examples--from the link between US oil prices and the recent 'tortilla riots' in Mexico to what was really happening when the U.S. government decided not to bail out Lehman Bros.

Political and financial upheaval is not a new phenomenon – from the tulip bulb bubble in the Netherlands in the seventeenth century to Black Monday in 1987, businesses throughout history have worked to adapt and cope. However, today’s climate is even more fraught with crises, raising the levels of concern for business, society, and governments. It especially poses a challenge for small businesses, who have to learn to cope with this increasingly turbulent environment, dealing with the difficulties and taking advantage of the new opportunities that turbulence can provide. Understanding how resilience capabilities can be developed to promote sustainable business is imperative. This book provides a new paradigm for conceptualizing resilience capabilities and advances current understanding both theoretically and practically in real-world business settings. Examining the processes of resilience during different phases of crisis reveals why businesses either fail, or outperform their counterparts during times of turbulence. Based on in-depth empirical research, researchers and advanced students in small business, strategic management and risk management will find this an invaluable guide to organizational resilience.