Antifragility for thriving communities

Published on: July 24, 2023

“Resilience in a narrow sense would mean that you quickly recover from a disturbance. The way I like to look at it is a bit different. One key concept in this effort is antifragility, which refers to systems that actually benefit from disruptions and shocks.” says Alexandra Lybaert, a civil engineer with a specialisation in physics. In September 2022 she started working at Sweco Belgium as Program Director for Energy Transition.

My goal is to help cities and industries become more resilient and adaptable to the challenges they face.

Alexandra Lybaert has become an ambassador for antifragility, measures that take resilience one step further by enabling our communities to thrive and actually benefit from disruptions. She was inspired by the book Antifragile by Nassim Nicholas Taleb. This category of things not only gains from chaos but needs it in order to survive and flourish.

“We have a term for fragile but we didn’t have a term for antifragile, because that is not the same as resilient. The risk of resilience is that we frame the status quo, while an antifragile society is actually thriving.”

To explain, Lybaert points to an idea for harnessing the power of Japan’s increasing number of typhoons.

“Theoretically you can capture a lot of energy, but the way wind turbines are designed you need to switch them off to protect them against the heavy storms. But what if you designed them so they could withstand the typhoons and produce a lot of energy during the storms? This is a simple example of what antifragility means.”

She calls for more discussions about resilience and antifragility in the boardrooms and would like the term ESG (environmental, social and governance) to be expanded to ESGRA (environmental, social, governance, resilience and antifragile)

“The more concepts you put out there, the more companies can see that they should not simply adapt, but instead transform themselves into something better.”

Before Lybaert have previously worked on digital transformation and innovation, all connected to her passion for renewable energy. At Sweco, she is involved in Energy for Society, where she and her colleagues try to find ways to integrate renewables throughout society with support from the communities themselves.

When asked about best practices for resilience, she highlights a handful of Sweco projects. One of them is net-zero business parks.

We have drawn up a plan to future-proof existing and ageing business parks in an integrated way with the goal of generating net-zero emissions. Local energy communities have proven to be a successful solution for companies to optimise their energy use, reduce costs and improve their resilience. A business case for solar panels was created, comparing the costs of a standalone company with those in an energy community. Biodiversity was also taken into account, making the air quality better and increasing the productivity of the people working there.

She also highlights a study done by Sweco for a specific region in Flanders on energy landscapes.
“I said that we shouldn’t look at energy as something exotic, we should integrate it in our societies in a natural way. In a very dense landscape like Flanders here in Belgium, we created a pilot setup to integrate solar panels in pear plantations and worked out an additional business model for this. This results in increased yields, as the solar panels produce shade and energy at the same time. Another example is the floating solar systems that prevent water evaporation and at the same time get cooled down by the water. Is it resilience? Well, it’s clever – it’s antifragile.”

Resilience – and thus antifragility – is becoming increasingly important for Sweco, its clients and for the wider society, she says.

“The world faces numerous challenges, including a potential 10-metre sea level rise and a planetary crisis in the mid-term horizon. Scientific research has shown us that the 1.5°C temperature increase is not just a political target, but a hard upper limit, and efforts to mitigate and adapt must be taken now to secure a better future.”

Discussions about urbanisation usually revolve around its many challenges, but Lybaert reverses this perspective.

“If people are moving towards cities and we can make those cities antifragile, more people would want to go and live there. That means that we have more space for nature restoration, rewilding the planet, which in turn will help to store carbon, improve water cycles, increase natural cooling and so on. And in our urban spaces we also need to create more room for nature while integrating renewable energy and farming.”

The key is to find a way to live in harmony with the environment, ensuring that it’s diverse and able to produce the organic aerosols and water vapor that help regulate our climate, she argues.

“By doing so, we can have a sustainable source of food, materials, energy and habitats. The goal is to create a smart, symbiotic relationship between our lifestyle and the environment. We need to be proactive and work together to make this a reality. “

Lybaert is also practicing what she preaches in her private life.

“As soon as I started to work with resilience, I thought of how I could apply it into my own life. But I soon realised I was already doing that, unconsciously. I selected a house with convenient access to nearby shops and essential amenities, as well as my own personal garden where I can grow my own fruits and vegetables. The location is within walking distance to all necessary amenities and is just a 15-minute drive to the city centre, offering a harmonious balance of urban convenience and rural tranquility. After the Covid crisis the 15-minute city concept is becoming more and more popular.”

When some people ask Lybaert what she does for a living, she usually answers that she is a regenerator.

“As an engineer, I aim to improve project designs by focusing on water infiltration instead of draining. This supports sustainable water management and protects the environment. We have helped to create a problem, and now we need to unlearn and rethink and solve those problems and bring the world to a better state.”

Where do you see the biggest resilience challenges?
“Our communities are organised in silos, at the level of government but also companies, and a transformation requires collaboration between the different sectors, redefining new departments. Instead of having a department of mobility and a department of energy, we could have a department of mobility and energy, or even better a department of antifragility.”

“The next challenge is how to inspire citizens to embrace the energy transition. Merely saying ‘net zero’ doesn’t cut it. That’s why we’re utilising cutting-edge technologies like VR and AR to create a vision of what their homes and neighbourhoods could look like – desirable places to live that are in harmony with nature. This sparks excitement and commitment to reaching net zero, and at Sweco we’re here to help transform society into an antifragile, sustainable community. Together, let’s make a positive change!”