Sustainability to resilience to action

Cities and communities worldwide face unprecedented challenges. They range from growth and densification, aging infrastructure, climate issues, and the impacts from drought and severe storms, to social issues like affordable housing and income disparity. Not to mention the current global COVID-19 crisis, which will have serious and lasting implications for all. At the same time, there are immense...

Extreme weather is becoming the new normal. Globally, the last two years have been marked by record-breaking hurricanes, floods, and heatwaves. Hurricanes in the Gulf of Mexico, bushfires in Australia, drought in South Africa, and in the UK water shortages alternating with repeated episodes of severe and frequent flooding have resulted in increasing coastal and general soil erosion and massive...

The case for practical action is compelling. Like many companies, Stantec and Southern Water have initiated a range of new approaches to help ensure long-term resilience thinking and action.

Nature is always active. Because of this, communities should be active too. Communities need to protect, restore, monitor, and respond to biodiversity loss, climate change, and environmental degradation. For example, the concept of rewilding is a progressive approach to conservation, enabling natural processes to restore landscapes and repair ecosystems. The answer is found in infrastructure...

Globally, work is underway to reverse environmental degradation and the loss of biodiversity, which is damaging economies and long-term survival. Infrastructure and solutions that embrace nature as an integral part of the solution need to be embedded. To offset carbon in its region, Southern Water originally considered more tree planting and it has recently planted 1,400 trees, including rare...

Another recent Stantec paper titled “Community Futures: think globally, act locally has never mattered more” highlights the challenges and opportunities in how communities operate. It notes the high level of uncertainty facing all communities and applies fresh thinking to the likely high-impact trends such as biosphere pollution and regeneration, as well as water, energy, and...

Stantec Senior Vice President of Strategy David Smith has more than 30 years of experience and has led large-scale strategic consulting assignments and infrastructure delivery programs across the global business. Stantec collaborates across disciplines and industries in more than 400 locations in six continents on water and infrastructure projects.