Future Ready

Epilogue: When You Rethink Everything, Finance Will Flow

This book describes some of the many possibilities for creating organizations that are more sustainable, resilient, and equitable—primarily through the lens of our built and natural environment. Rethinking how to approach design, engineering, operational systems and functions, and indeed, organizational design are all critical to creating Future Ready infrastructure. We've looked at real-world examples of rethinking engineering in order to design critical assets such as transportation systems, buildings, homes, and energy and water infrastructure for a very different world—one in which our previous assumptions and solutions are rapidly becoming outdated. Equally important from an organizational level is developing long-term plans to realize climate resilience and net zero goals. But acting on these plans means moving from design to construction to operations, all of which requires investment.

Finance is the lynchpin in ensuring those plans and designs are executed, making it critical to realizing the Future Ready goals outlined in this book. Without funding and budgets, corporate net zero plans will remain well-articulated ideas contained in a report on someone's shelf. Likewise, without policy and investment capital that directs developers to design and build-in sustainability and climate resilience measures, new infrastructure projects will not be prepared for the warmer, more volatile climate conditions that will exist ...