Building Resilience from the Ground Up: Earth, Equity and Local Action in the Super South
Andrew has extensive sustainability expertise, with experience in both private industry and higher education. He previously served as sustainability manager at Milliken & Company, focusing on ESG reporting, life cycle assessment, and climate strategy. As University Director of Sustainability at Indiana University, he advanced sustainability education, waste management, greenhouse gas accounting, and a climate-focused internship program across seven campuses.
Dr. Andrew Predmore, Executive Director of the Shi Institute for Sustainable Communities, delivered a powerful case for treating nature as infrastructure in the face of mounting climate risks. Grounded in South Carolina’s lived experience and IPCC-aligned modeling, this session contrasted business-as-usual sprawl with a future shaped by compact development, conservation, and renewable energy. By emphasizing nature as infrastructure and linking local policy wins to regional resilience planning, Dr. Predmore illustrated how precision, equity, and ecosystem investment can move communities from paralysis to action—and how scaling these efforts can support both environmental and economic stability across the Super South.
Building Stability in a Changing Climate
The speaker opened by emphasizing that protecting and restoring ecosystems is one of the most cost-effective strategies for building climate resilience. Functional ecosystems—forests, wetlands and open spaces—provide essential services like water purification, flood mitigation and air quality regulation. They also buffer communities from climate extremes and unchecked development. By treating these ecosystems as nature-based infrastructure, planners can unlock co-benefits that go beyond environmental protection to include public health, safety, and cost savings. By visually modeling South Carolina’s future under two scenarios—business-as-usual versus sustainable planning—the speaker showed that sprawl-driven growth leads to long-term ecological degradation, while investment in renewable energy, compact development and land conservation offers a more livable and biodiverse future. These IPCC-based projections reframed resilience as an urgent planning priority rather than a distant concern.
From Planning to Action: Local Strategies That Deliver
The presentation spotlighted South Carolina as both a model and a warning. Global data shows six of nine planetary boundaries have already been crossed, and South Carolina is feeling the impacts now. In coastal regions like Beaufort and Bluffton, private insurers are withdrawing due to climate risk, making resilience an immediate economic issue. Despite this urgency, many local governments remain stuck in planning paralysis. One case study showed how Beaufort County, with more than 70 prior plans, successfully advanced a wetland protection ordinance after coordinated facilitation and technical support. This example highlighted the value of localized, collaborative implementation strategies in overcoming institutional inertia and converting ambition into policy.
Resilience Requires Equity and Precision
Urban climate vulnerability was shown to be deeply unequal. In Greenville, wealthier neighborhoods had twice the tree cover and far less impervious surface compared to low-income areas, making poorer communities significantly more exposed to heat. The speaker stressed that resilience efforts must be tailored to these disparities. Tools developed by the Shi Institute allow cities to map vulnerability at the neighborhood level, enabling more targeted investments in tree planting and cooling infrastructure. Municipalities like Fountain Inn are already using this data to inform their strategies. This precision-driven approach to resilience ensures that interventions benefit those most affected by climate stress, supporting both fairness and effectiveness.
Scaling Local Experience to Regional Impact
The session concluded by linking hyperlocal work to broader regional planning. The Institute’s efforts in ten South Carolina communities now inform state-level strategies through the Office of Resilience and contribute to a multistate initiative coordinated by the GEOS Institute. A recurring concern raised by practitioners—compound flooding from sea level rise and extreme rainfall—has become a research priority across four Southern states. This dynamic exchange between community insight and regional research exemplifies how local experience can guide higher-level decision-making. The speaker also called for deeper private-sector involvement, noting that resilient communities support business continuity through reliable infrastructure and workforce stability. Investment in planning capacity, data tools and implementation staffing was framed as essential to creating shared value across civic and commercial sectors.
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