Conceptual Basis for a Sustainable and Fire Resilient Built Environment

Fire has the potential to create significant impacts on the built environment. Managing this impact is sometimes pursued without consideration of the interface between the natural and technological worlds. However, as society has recognized the impacts of technological development on environmental sustainability, the need for sustainable and resilient development has emerged. To facilitate sustainable and resilient development, technological choices should embrace a sociotechnical systems approach that considers the interactions of society, technology and institutions, and their interactions with the environment. Failure to do so can result in unintended consequences. Society’s technological choices aimed at increasing sustainability of buildings, such as the desire to reduce building carbon footprints or improve the use of renewable energy systems, can have significant impacts on fire resilience if not considered holistically. To better understand and comprehensively address and mitigate intolerable fire risk associated with choices driven by sustainability objectives, a balanced and holistic systems approach is needed. To this end, a framework to foster a systems-oriented approach to improving both sustainability and fire resilience, in tandem, to create a Sustainable and Fire Resilient Built Environment (SAFR-BE) is presented.