Ken Calligar, CEO of RSG 3-D, believes homes should be built once, built right, and made to last.
The company’s panel building system is multi-disaster resilient; energy efficient; low maintenance; and mold, insect, and vermin resistant. Calligar says change is good when it comes to building better homes that ultimately hold people’s lives.
“Resilient homes are not just about better technology. They’re about honoring the people who live in them and assuring their future. Families and homes make up a community, and a future-proof community is where people can thrive,” he adds.
As the U.S. is one week into hurricane season and a month into wildfire season as well, Calligar shares more on building resilient homes and communities below.
What does ‘disaster resilience’ truly mean?
Disaster resilience is about more than surviving a single event—it’s about actively defining how we want to, and need to, live for our families and communities over the long term. A disaster-resilient home is primarily defined as one that will withstand natural disasters such as wildfires, hurricanes, and earthquakes. These normal weather and geological events should not even challenge buildings that are truly resilient. Their structural integrity should be well beyond the magnitude of any historical events. A resilient home should be where you seek assured shelter, and in today’s natural environment, this level of resilience is non-negotiable. Even without knowing what is next, we can be prepared for it all.
Consumers, insurers, and builders can easily see the failure of our built environment. Urgency and anxiety about climate change and future disaster events are creating motivation for substantial change. Performance-based building codes and new regulations are pushing toward construction materials and methods that prioritize long-term safety, energy efficiency, and sustainability. Code changes are always the lagging indicator of real-world failure. The task is to get ahead of risks. It is consumers, making individual choices to invest in their homes, that are the key drivers of change. As consumers demand better materials and building performance, builders, developers, and codes will follow.
Courtesy RSG 3-D
That’s where systems like RSG 3-D’s Resilient Panel Building System come in. Our monolithic panel structure, composed of non-combustible materials, an internal steel frame, and high thermal insulation, has been independently tested and proven to resist high winds, earthquakes, fire, and water intrusion. This is not theoretical—we’ve seen our buildings stand untouched while everything around them was razed.
Resilience starts with the right materials. Our mission is to build safer homes that protect families and communities before, during, and long after disaster strikes.
What building materials are proven to protect property (and lives) against hurricanes?
When it comes to hurricane resilience, the question isn’t whether your structure looks good on paper—it’s how it performs under pressure. High winds, flying debris, and storm surge don’t care about tradition. And yet, many builders still rely on materials like wood that fail when it matters most.
The RSG 3-D Resilient Panel Building System is decades ahead of current structural codes. Our system has been tested and proven to maintain its integrity through some of the harshest disasters—hurricanes, wildfires, earthquakes, and floods. In over 30 years, we have never experienced a failure. Beyond its strength, it delivers thermal performance that dramatically reduces energy use across all climate zones.
We’ve designed a system that supports the full lifecycle of a building: faster installation, lower operational costs, minimal maintenance, reduced energy, and dramatically greater long-term safety. At a time when risk is only increasing, the need for high-performance, resilient systems isn’t just a preference—it’s a necessity.
Why isn’t there wider adoption of these materials and practices?
The biggest barriers to the broader adoption of resilient building materials are awareness and inertia. Many builders, developers, and even regulators simply don’t know that a solution like RSG 3-D exists—or they assume it’s too complex or costly to implement.
In reality, our system has been used in thousands of projects across more than 20 countries for over 30 years. What we’re offering isn’t new—it’s proven. The building industry often defaults to familiar materials and methods, even when this no longer meets the challenges we face in today’s changing climate.
In high-risk areas like California, Florida, and the Gulf Coast, we’re seeing growing demand from both public and private sectors for stronger, smarter construction. Weather events have clearly identified the failure of our building and development. Drastically increasing insurance rates reflect not only climate risk, but the risk that your home is not up to the task it was designed for.
Resilience is not a luxury—it’s the foundation of sustainability. If you have to build it twice, you have failed.
What are the top three mistakes home builders make when building resilient homes?
The biggest mistakes we see stem from an industry that’s still largely stuck in outdated practices, building to meet the bare minimum, rather than exceed it.
There are too many builders that still operate with a “code-compliant is good enough” mentality. But building codes are not performance standards—they are legal minimums, not best practices. In an era of accelerating climate threats, meeting code is no longer sufficient to protect people or property.
In addition, traditional construction methods continue to dominate, despite their proven shortcomings. Materials like wood framing remain the default in much of the country—even in wildfire zones, hurricane corridors, and seismic regions. These materials are combustible, prone to water damage, and structurally vulnerable under stress. The continued reliance on methods that consistently fail under disaster conditions is both inefficient and irresponsible. Even without natural disasters, wood buildings decay at an alarming rate. This makes no sense as many people’s largest financial asset.
How has the resilient home building industry shifted in recent years?
We’re no longer asking if a disaster will happen—we’re asking when. That mindset shift has been a major catalyst in the evolution of the resilient building industry.
The traditional build-destroy-rebuild cycle has proven financially and emotionally unsustainable. We are all underinsured and all vulnerable. It’s pushing more builders and developers to seek out materials and systems that offer true durability, not just code compliance. Homeowners and builders are now the ones leading the charge toward smarter solutions.
At RSG 3-D, we’ve seen this firsthand. Our system has become the go-to choice for homeowners and developers alike looking to future-proof their projects. It’s fire-resistant, hurricane-tested, earthquake-rated, flood-durable, and highly energy efficient. That’s the kind of multi-hazard resilience the future demands. And, as it turns out, a resilient home or building is worth more!
We’re also seeing governments and municipalities step up. They’re beginning to require fire and disaster-resistant construction in high-risk zones. These changes, paired with growing consumer awareness, are helping drive momentum toward a safer, more sustainable standard for the industry.
