Resilience in Action: Tools helping companies prepare for crises
The United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR), together with the International Finance Corporation (IFC), convened over 350 participants from around the world for a groundbreaking webinar exploring two complementary resilience tools: the Resilience Maturity Assessment (ReMA) and the Building Resilience Index (BRI).
The session, "From Strategy to Structure: Leveraging ReMA and BRI for Organizational and Asset-Level Resilience", brought together private sector leaders, urban planners, investors, and resilience officers in a shared call for advancing risk-informed decision-making through practical tools.
"REMA and BRI, when used together, transform how we plan, assess, and implement resilience. One lens focuses on the organization, the other on the assets. Combined, they sharpen our vision and ensure no blind spots," said Vice Admiral Alexander Pama, UNDRR ARISE Board Member and moderator of the session.
From strategy to implementation: complementary tools for a resilient future
The ReMA tool, developed under the UNDRR-supported Corporate Chief Resilience Officers (CCRO) Network, enables organizations, including micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs), to assess their resilience maturity across governance, culture, operations, and value chains. With just 12-14 targeted questions, users receive tailored feedback and free access to over 40 practical templates to guide improvements.
"We created ReMA to be simple, free, and scalable," said Laurent Giezendanner, Head of Corporate Security at Syngenta. "It's about helping organizations-especially those with limited resources-understand where they stand and how they can move forward."
The Building Resilience Index (BRI), developed by IFC, complements ReMA by focusing on physical infrastructure. It is a free, online, hazard-based self-assessment tool that helps investors, developers, and building owners measure and improve the resilience of built assets.
"We want buildings to be both green and resilient," said Mathew Francis, Technical Lead for Resilient Buildings at IFC. "BRI creates a standardized language for resilience across markets and gives decision-makers the ability to link asset-level risk to long-term investment and operational continuity."
Case studies: from Mexico to the boardroom
Cédrick Moriggi, Chief Resilience Officer at Group Resilience, demonstrated how ReMA helps companies secure insurance, justify investment in risk reduction, and build internal advocacy.
"This tool isn't about compliance-it's about building trust with investors, insurers, and leadership. It gives you a defensible scorecard that says: 'we are ready'."
From the asset perspective, Karen Mora, Sustainability Director at Fibra UNO, Latin America's largest REIT, shared the challenges her company faced in the aftermath of Hurricane Otis in Mexico. Despite prior risk assessments, the absence of resilience-oriented design and operational continuity planning led to massive financial losses and delayed recovery.
"The BRI tool helped us rethink our approach-not just to risk, but to rebuilding. We raised floor levels, adopted new protocols, and improved design based on global best practices," Mora explained.
Beyond tools: a call to action for resilient investment
The webinar concluded with a clear message: ReMA and BRI are not only standalone solutions, they are mutually reinforcing components of a resilience pathway. Participants were encouraged to register their organizations with the CCRO Network, engage with ARISE, and explore IFC's resilience tools. "The private sector has seen the cost of unpreparedness. But it's also seen the value of foresight and adaptation," said Pama. "These tools help us act before the next crisis-not after."
The session supports the implementation of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction, the Paris Agreement, and the call from the 2025 Global Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction to strengthen private sector resilience through innovation and risk-informed investment.