Needing to Build Resilience in a Post-Pandemic World
by Michael Mondshine, Senior VP, Director – Sustainability, Energy and Climate Change, WSP USA
Originally published by World Finance
We have a ‘Future Ready’ programme, which identifies key trends in social demographics, technology, natural resources and climate change. The pandemic has created some new trends that we are going to need to adjust for. Examples include suburbanisation, as people continue to move towards the centres of cities but may not be comfortable in the densest locations; the increase in people working at home; and the change in transport and office environments.
We have also done substantial work around how healthcare systems can be more effective in the future, both in response to the pandemic but also in terms of existing challenges such as serving an aging population. We want to reduce costs by having more flexible healthcare facilities – not simply an emergency room or a local doctor’s office, but somewhere that can offer multiple services. This is not just an academic exercise. WSP project managers take the trends identified into consideration on each and every ‘Future Ready’ project they work on. It may turn out that none of the trends apply and that’s fine. But in many cases, they will.
