Safety, culture, resilience: shaping communities’ safety and experience

Author: Gill Kernick

Date published

16 September 2026

Price
Free
The Institution of Structural Engineers The Institution of Structural Engineers

Safety, culture, resilience: shaping communities’ safety and experience

Training

Author

Gill Kernick

Date published

16 September 2026

Author

Gill Kernick

Price

Free

Watch this presentation from the 2026 Structural safety and risk conference calling on structural engineers to act with ambition and moral courage to prioritise people’s lived experiences in organisational decision-making.

This presentation challenges the idea that organisational culture can be improved simply through compliance, rules, or training, arguing that these approaches are no longer enough to address complex modern risks. Drawing on lessons from post-Grenfell reforms and international experience, the talk calls on structural engineers to demonstrate greater ambition and moral courage by placing people’s lived experiences at the centre of decision-making and creating organisations that prioritise human impact alongside technical and regulatory requirements.

Speaker

Black and white portrait of a middle-aged woman with blonde hair wearing a black top against a dark background.

Gill Kernick

Gill Kernick

 Director Culture and Strategy Realisation, Arup
Gill is the author of Catastrophe and Systemic Change: Learning from the Grenfell Tower Fire and Other Disasters, combining her experience consulting organisations in high hazard industries with a deeply personal connection to the 2017 fire. From 2011 to 2014 Gill lived on the 21st floor of Grenfell, seven of her immediate neighbours were among the seventy-two deaths. In 2022 Gill joined Arup where she leads a global programme to elevate Arup's safety culture. She is a member of the statutory residents advisory panel set up under the new regulatory regime.

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Additional information

Format:
Video
Video Length:
00:25:11
Publisher:
IStructE

Tags

Training Safety Community & Inclusivity Best practice Video IStructE London HQ

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