We spoke with sustainability expert and principal Steve Moddemeyer about what resilience and sustainability really mean in practice — and where the work is headed next.

Q: How do you define resilience and sustainability in the context of our work at CollinsWoerman?

A: Resilience is not something that never breaks, it is more the capacity we have to keep our identity while we recover from extreme events. The more quickly we can recover and stay true to ourselves, the more resilience emerges. When we work with communities or development partners, we start with the shared values of the community. Articulating the values helps the parties to look beyond their differences and to find ways to work together to stay true to those values and to meet our differing interests. Sustainability underpins resilience. It helps us build infrastructure and buildings that are not fragile. Rather than big, hard, and brittle, sustainability supports resilience by being incremental, soft, and adaptive.

Q: How do you help teams prioritize which sustainability strategies matter most?

A: Many teams prioritize the least expensive sustainability strategies that get them the most points to achieve a good rating. There is real monetary value for some measures. Or sometimes the measures help permitting go better or a building get denser. Some groups, though, also add heart energy. They want to create something that helps get the project funded and built and that will provide decades of added value as the project grows into its location. Smart, enduring, beautiful, kind: these are the sustainable attributes that can matter most over time.

Q: What’s the biggest misconception about sustainable design you encounter?

A: I heard it best from Mark Woerman and Arlan Collins 17 years ago – sustainability is not decorations on the cake; it IS the cake. A truly sustainable project leverages nature, gravity, dollars, efficiency, practicality, and humanity from start to finish to start.

Q: What excites you most about the future of resilient and sustainable design?

A: These days are difficult days that require courage, clarity, and a steadfast belief in the goodness inherent in the world. I am inspired when I see that goodness and clarity all around. Too often we miss it. It’s like air. We can’t see it, but it is essential for life. As we ride the ups and downs of good times and tough times, I see that it is our capacity for resilience, our shared values, and our sense of what’s right that will ultimately sustain us.

Steve helps create tools, policies, and programs that empower communities to implement resilience principles into planning for land use and urban infrastructure. He has decades of experience leading governments, tribes, land owners, and project teams toward increased sustainability and resilience.

This Q&A is part of our CollinsWoerman Expert Series where we interview the firm’s architects, designers, sustainability experts, and interior designers to get their perspectives on industry trends, best design practices, and more.