Adapt: Climate Change and the Built Environment
Hosts Mónika Serrano and Jessica Mederson interview people across the private and public sectors to discuss adapting the built environment to a changing climate. While climate mitigation and sustainability get most of the attention and financial investments, climate resiliency and adaptation are just as crucial because we are already experiencing the impacts of changes to our climate. Ensuring that we are adapting to extreme weather and evolving climate patterns requires us to reexamine what it takes to make our buildings, infrastructure, and communities safe and resilient both now and in the future, so that people, buildings, and businesses can continue to thrive for years and decades to come.
- Update frequency
- every 13 days
- Average duration
- 42 minutes
- Episodes
- 25
- Years Active
- 2023 - 2025
Bridging the Gap: Finding Funds to Build (and Build Back) Better
Monika and Jessica talk to Abby Ross, the founder of The Resiliency Company, focused on helping communities adapt to climate risk. Abby has used her background as an entrepreneur and experience worki…
Resilient Waterfronts: Designing for the Future
Dena Prastos, CEO and Founder of Indigo River Studios, joins Monika and Jessica to discuss waterfront resilience in NYC and beyond. Indigo River Studios is a women-owned design firm specializing in w…
Messing with the Mississippi: Lessons Learned from the Great River
Monika and Jessica speak with Boyce Upholt, a writer and "nature critic," about his first book, The Great River: The Making and Unmaking of the Mississippi. They discuss the long history of American …
Future-Proofing Business: The Chamber's Work on Climate Resilience
Monika Serrano and Jessica Mederson speak with Chuck Chaitovitz, Vice President for environmental affairs and sustainability at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. They discuss the work being done by the C…
Healthy Buildings, Smarter Leases: Climate Law in Action
Nicole DeNamur joins the podcast this week, along with co-hosts Jessica Mederson and Monika Serrano, they talk about emerging state and city climate-related laws, climate-aligned contracts and lea…
Home Insurance: Will it Weather the Storm?
Three Solutions for Climate Ready Construction
Mónika Serrano and Jessica Mederson talk to three entrepreneurs about their solutions to problems the construction industry faces on the job site, particurarly in the face of extreme heat, poor air …
Hot Lessons, Cool Solutions: The Miami-Dade Story
Jessica Mederson and Mónika Serrano sit down with Jane Gilbert, Miami-Dade County's Chief Heat Officer. Together, they dive into the growing threat of extreme heat for cities, its disproportionate im…
Are Real Estate Investors Addressing Climate Risk?
Jessica Mederson and Mónika Serrano speak with Julie Manning, Global Head of Climate and Carbon Strategy at La Salle Investments. This conversation explores if real estate investors are factoring cli…
Beavers: Nature's Climate Resilience Engineers
Drought. Flooding. Wildfires. These are all risks our communities and built environment face and these risks are increasing as our planet warms. Beavers, nature's engineers and a keystone species, ca…
From The Ground Up: Local Efforts to Create Resilient Cities
Jessica Mederson and Mónika Serrano speak with Alison Sant, author of the book From the Ground Up: Local Efforts to Create Resilient Cities. They discuss how empowered local communities have created …
The Money Will Follow: Investors on Climate Risk and Migration
Mónika Serrano and Jessica Mederson talk to Greg Lindsey of Alpha Geo to explore how investors evaluate risks and opportunities in the face of climate change and climate migration. We also discuss p…
A New Standard For Property Resilience
Mónika Serrano and Jessica Mederson talk to Holly Neber, CEO of AEI Consultants, and chair of the development of the recently approved ASTM International Standard Guide for the assessment of physica…
Concrete Conversations: Resiliency, Sustainability, & Innovation
Mónika Serrano and Jessica Mederson talk to Jim Schneider, Executive Director of PCI Mountain States, a chapter of the Precast/Prestressed Concrete Institute (PCI) covering Colorado, Idaho, Montana…
Working with Resiliency Consultants to Adapt the Built Environment
Mónika and Jessica talk to Amy Macdonald, Founder & Principal of Ripple Resilience. Formerly a principal and founder of Thornton Tomasetti's Resilience Practice, her career spans four continents, wit…
Building a Resilient Tomorrow: Federal Policy Perspective
Jessica Mederson and Monika Serrano speak to Alice C. Hill, an expert in resilience to catastrophic risks, having served as Special Assistant to President Obama and Senior Director for Resilience Pol…
Resilience Pays: Insurance Companies Fund Climate-Resilient Buildings Research
Jessica Mederson and Monika Serrano close the first season speaking with Dr. Anne Cope, Chief Engineer at IBHS, the Insurance Institute for Business & Home Safety, a nonprofit supported by property i…
The Legal Landscape of Climate Adaptation
Mónika and Jessica interview Professor Michael Gerrard, founder and director of the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law at Columbia Law School. We discuss issues such as building codes and FEMA floo…
Keeping US diplomats safe abroad
Jessica and Monika speak with Dr. Cassandra Smith and David Keller, from the Bureau of Overseas Buildings Operations, US Department of State. Their Climate Security and Resilience program works to un…
New Orleans and Resilience Realities
Mónika and Jessica discuss living in New Orleans with Ashley Robinson, a construction lawyer with a civil engineering degree who lives and works in New Orleans. We discuss living in New Orleans post …