Engineering Climate Resilience

As climate change creates complex challenges, we are responding to communities worldwide by finding innovative solutions for today and engineering community resilience for tomorrow. Resilience, innovation, and prosperity happen when we all come together, and we need you to help build our shared and thriving future.

Marginalized and underserved communities, both around the world and in the United States, often feel the harshest effects of industrialization and climate change. The most effective and urgent way to help is by building climate-resilient infrastructure in the communities where we work, which are often the areas most heavily impacted.

CHALLENGES IN CLIMATE EQUITY

The negative impacts of climate change and industrialization are most acutely felt in marginalized and underserved communities globally and in the United States. These impacts include enivornmental harm and destruction, economic hardship, and negative effects to health and well-being. The best and most immediate way to address these disparities is to create climate-resilient infrastructure in the communities that are most impacted by climate change.

GLOBAL CLIMATE

Despite having some of the lowest carbon emissions and contributing the least to climate change, many of the world’s least wealthy countries are the most vulnerable to the impacts of the world's changing climate. We’ve interviewed members of our partner communities around the world to learn what they’re experiencing and what these changes mean for them, this is what we heard.

unpredictability

UNPREDICTABILITY

Weather patterns are becoming increasingly erratic, creating unpredictability in the communities we work with. For those dependent on agriculture, this means constant uncertainty and struggling to plan and harvest crops, resulting in hunger and economic hardship.

hotter and drier

HOTTER AND DRIER

As temperatures soar and climates become more arid, our partner communities face rapidly depleting water sources for drinking and farming. This dire situation jeopardizes health, sanitation, and food security.

vulnerable to disaster

VULNERABLE TO DISASTER

Extreme weather events like hurricanes, tornadoes, floods, and wildfires are becoming more frequent, more powerful, and more devastating. This causes vulnerability to disaster to soar. From contaminated water to shattered infrastructure, the consequences threaten lives and livelihoods.

U.S. ENVIRONMENT

For centuries, development and discriminatory policies like redlining have marginalized communities of color and low-income Americans. Zoning laws, infrastructure neglect, and hazardous waste ignorance compound their plight. These communities endure disproportionate health risks and lack access to essentials like clean water and fresh food. It’s a cycle of injustice demanding urgent attention.

SUPPORT COMMUNITIES

2 MILLION

PEOPLE LACK ACCESS TO WATER AND SANITATION

Access to clean water and sanitation is often something we take for granted. However, even in the United States, over 2 million people lack access to these basic necessities.

28 DISASTERS

Each causing over 1 Billion Dollars in Damages

2023 was the most expensive year on record for the US disaster damages. As severe weather events become more frequent, this trend is likely to continue. Under-resourced communities are often the most vulnerable to such disasters.

100 MILLION

AMERICANS LACK ACCESS TO GREEN SPACES

As pollution and climate change continue to reduce air quality and raise temperatures, green spaces are a crucial protection against the urban heat island effect. Green spaces are also important for holistic health outcomes including exercise and community gathering.

APPROACH AND SOLUTIONS

Our projects have the ability to radically change lives for the better. Because of that, we are strongly committed to ensuring that each and every EWB-USA project lasts and serves its purpose for generations to come. We build projects today that will be resilient to the climate of tomorrow. As we continue to develop and refine our approach, we rely on the following four guiding pillars:

GIVE TO CLIMATE RESILIENCE

research

RESEARCH

We use robust data to model the changing climate patterns in communities we work with including changes to rainfall patterns, desertification, and sea level rise.

community

COMMUNITY

We work with community members to co-design projects and solutions to meet the community’s needs. We take the time to listen to the community to understand how their climate is changing and ensure our projects will have their intended impact.

adaptive

ADAPTIVE SOLUTIONS

Utilizing climate modeling and input from the communities, we create adaptive solutions that are designed not just for today, but for resilience to their future climate.

training

TRAINING AND EDUCATION

We develop community-centered training to ensure communities are well-positioned to understand their climate-related risks and maintain the project after completion.

CLIMATE INITIATIVE SUMMARY REPORT

During 2021 and early 2022 as COVID travel restrictions lessened and travel to our project locations became possibe once again, staff recognized the need for an update to our climate change evaluation and methodology. While looking at the various climate data portals and researching quantitative data, we also knew that to truly improve our evaluation of climate change, we needed to hear from our partners about what climate change looks like in their communities.

This need to listen and understand climate impact was the inception of the EWB-USA 2022 Climate Initiative.

Read Report

Engineering Climate Resilience

CHALLENGES IN CLIMATE EQUITY