Episode Details

"Resilience is not going back to the original levels... It's not possible. It's actually about going forward."

Are you interested in resilience as bouncing forward? What do you think about city sandboxing? How can we increase our adaptive capacity as individuals, communities and cities?

Interview with Sam Kernaghan, Director for the Resilience Program at the Committee for Sydney. We will talk about his vision for the future of cities, data and decision-making, resilience, experimentation, urban energy, and many more.

Over the past 25 years Sam has worked with the UN, Rockefeller Foundation, and Asian Development Bank to design and deliver climate focused investment programs with governments and urban communities around the world. Since volunteering in post-tsunami Sri Lanka in 2006, Sam has worked with more than 50 cities across Asia, New Zealand, Australia and the US, to build resilience to growing natural hazard risk, and changing economic and social shocks and stresses. At the Committee for Sydney, an independent urban policy think tank, Sam established the Resilience Program in 2021, creating a respected research and advocacy platform that has built capacity and influenced policy change across decarbonisation, nature positive and climate adaptation priorities. Sam is a Non-Executive Director of Green Cross Australia, a fellow and climate champion at the Planning Institute of Australia, and lecturer in sustainable futures at Western Sydney University.

Find out more about Sam through these links:

• Sam Kernaghan on LinkedIn
• Committee for Sydney website
• Sam Kernaghan at the Committee for Sydney
• Committee for Sydney on LinkedIn

Connecting episodes you might be interested in:

• No.260 - Interview with Haydn Read about infrastructure for people
• No.280 - Interview with Hudson Worsley about environmental services
• No.282 - Interview with Keygan Huckleberry about disaster resilience
• No.361R - Resilience and the Sustainable Development Goals: a scrutiny of urban strategies in the 100 Resilient Cities initiative

What was the most interesting part for you? What questions did arise for you? Let me know on Twitter ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@WTF4Cities⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ or on the ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠wtf4cities.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ website where the ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠shownotes⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ are also available