Giving Compass' Take:

• Samuel Northrup describes how IBM, Bechtel, and the Puerto Rico Department of Education applied the SDG framework to improving Puerto Rico schools following Hurricane Maria. 

• How can other efforts follow this model? What does the upcoming hurricane season mean for Maria recovery? 

• Find out why Puerto Rico schools are going green. 

Hurricane Maria swept through Puerto Rico in a matter of days, but the lives of the island’s people were changed forever as they now continue to rebuild amidst another hurricane season. The U.S. territory was partially underwater and completely without power following the storm — and the island’s schools were no different.

Recognizing just how important education and schools are to a community, IBM and Bechtel came together to aid the Puerto Rico Department of Education (PRDE) in its recovery. But before anything could be done, IBM, Bechtel, and the PRDE first needed to come up with a plan.

By harnessing expertise in planning, technology, and development, IBM and Bechtel helped to do just that — mapping their work to SDG 11 along the way to craft an emergency management and resilience plan that fit the PRDE’s specific needs.

To come up with the best strategy, IBM and Bechtel first turned to the U.N. Disaster Resilience Scorecard, a list of 10 essential steps that should be followed to effectively assess a city’s resiliency. To better fit the needs of the PRDE, IBM adapted the 10 steps to work with education departments rather than municipalities.

The results led to a “roadmap” tailored to the PRDE with ten “wins” that could be achieved in order to begin recovery in conjunction with the Scorecard, explained Jurij Paraszczak, director of IBM Industry Solutions and leader of the Global Research Smarter Cities program.

Read the full article about applying the SDGs by Samuel Northrup at TriplePundit.