Travelers Fortifies Communities
Our work with IBHS
Travelers is a key sponsor and executive committee board member of IBHS, an independent, nonprofit, scientific research organization tasked with understanding and quantifying the impact of building codes and standards on loss. Over the last decade, IBHS has identified gaps through full-scale laboratory testing at its state-of-the-art facility and influenced changes to existing building code standards and best practices to mitigate potential losses. A 2020 National Institute of Building Sciences study concluded that for every $1 spent on hazard mitigation, $13 is saved on future disaster costs. At Travelers, mitigation credits are available for homes designated as FORTIFIEDTM by IBHS.
Resiliency is more important than ever. Extreme wind events like hurricanes and tornadoes can cause severe damage and greatly disrupt families and communities. To help build stronger, more resilient communities, in 2011 we joined forces with Habitat for Humanity®, a nonprofit organization that helps families build and improve their homes, and the Insurance Institute for Business & Home Safety (IBHS) to build affordable, wind-resistant houses to FORTIFIED HomeTM standards throughout the country. In more recent years, we have also begun working with Rebuilding Together, SBP, Smart Home America and Team Rubicon to further increase capacity for building FORTIFIED in the nonprofit rebuilding sector.
Developed by IBHS, FORTIFIED Home construction practices are designed to help homeowners and communities better weather future storms, including hurricanes, high winds, hail and severe thunderstorms. Building FORTIFIED means exceeding the minimum standards set by building codes for construction techniques and materials. Our partnership shows that by making a few important changes in home construction standards, homes are better able to withstand storms without significantly adding to the cost.
Travelers Fortifies Communities
At Travelers, we want to build stronger, more resilient communities. In response to an increasing number of natural disasters, we partnered with Habitat for Humanity and the IBHS to create Travelers Fortifies Communities.
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Travelers Logo
TEXT: Travelers Fortifies Communities
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Aerial shot of neighborhood. Volunteers building a house.
TEXT: Erin Haberman, Travelers Foundation
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ERIN HABERMAN: At Travelers, we wanna build stronger, more resilient communities, so in response to increasing numbers of natural disasters, in 2012, we partnered with Habitat for Humanity and the Insurance Institute for Business & Home Safety to create Travelers Fortifies Communities.
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TEXT: Karraine Moody, CEO, Habitat For Humanity North Central Connecticut
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KARRAINE MOODY: Travelers sponsored our first FORTIFIED home, and what was so reflective of them being a partner is that they did not say, "Do it." They actually provided the skills, the training, and the funding to help us create the model so that we can replicate that going forward.
ERIN HABERMAN: The program's been a tremendous success, and we've been able to expand to other nonprofit partners, like Team Rubicon, Smart Home America, and SBP, who thanks to a pilot program that we built together is now rebuilding to FORTIFIED standards in every disaster-impacted community they serve.
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Aerial shot of home being bult, saws and power tools being used.
TEXT: Alyssa Devine, Project Manager, SBP
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ALYSSA DEVINE: FORTIFIED is a code-plus way of building that will make a home strengthened against increased wind loads. In a home like this, everything's gonna be tied down, from the roof all the way to the foundations.
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TEXT: Zack Rosenburg, Co-Founder & CEO, SBP
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ZACK ROSENBURG: So, we had known about the FORTIFIED standard for years. We knew it was the right thing, but we had neither the technical capacity or the financial means to run a pilot program. The partnership with Travelers is a game changer.
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Palm trees blowing in hurricane winds, heavy rain.
TEXT: Julie Shiyou-Woodard, President & CEO, Smart Home America
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JULIE SHIYOU-WOODARD: In Louisiana, we had some FORTIFIED homes that were already on the ground when Ida struck, and we had some SBP projects in the Ninth Ward that did fantastic because they had a FORTIFIED roof.
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Aerial shot of neighborhood, blue tarps on some roofs.
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ZACK ROSENBURG: Of the 60 homes where with Travelers' help, we had put FORTIFIED roofs on these homes, every single one of them was unscathed, where houses across the street, next door, behind them had various levels of very significant damage.
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TEXT: Elizabeth Eglé, Chief Development Officer, SBP
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ELIZABETH EGLÉ: Others are taking notice of this to see that for a very small amount of money, you can really build greater fortification.
ZACK ROSENBURG: Giving people predictability, a roof they can trust, is 100% the right thing to do.
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Volunteers working in home.
TEXT: Michael Klein, EVP & President, Personal Insurance
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MICHAEL KLEIN: At Travelers, we really focus on trying to be the best at helping people protect the things that matter most, and leveraging the FORTIFIED standards to build these houses back stronger than they were before, to help them withstand the next storm that's gonna come through is really critical.
ELIZABETH EGLÉ: If we know that weather is getting more severe and causing greater damage, what we hope to do is inspire other nonprofit groups, other for-profit contractors to think differently about the way we recover from disasters, and thanks to Travelers, we're starting down that path.
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TEXT: Alex Cary, FORTIFIED Market Development Manager, Insurance Institute for Business & Home Safety
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ALEX CARY: What Travelers is doing is exceptionally important. Just getting the word out, 'cause there's a lot of people that need to know about it, and a lot of different levels, from insurance agents, to builders, to realtors, and insurers, and legislators, and I think all of that really helps to bring that to the people that need it most.
KARRAINE MOODY: To have a partner such as Travelers that understands that at the core, you're a construction company, and supports that in such a way that you're able to increase your output, increase what you build? That's priceless.
ZACK ROSENBURG: Our partnership with Travelers is allowing us to make good on this promise of not just having a place to live, but know that that home is safe, secure, and driving generational equity.
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TEXT: Caring for our Communities
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