How well would your building stand up against a heat wave or a storm? Before you answer with your building’s specs, remember that they’re based on historic conditions – and your building will be subject to storms that are more intense and frequent than your design and equipment probably take into account.

“Our buildings were essentially designed looking through the rearview mirror of the car as we’re driving down the road,” explains Chris Pyke, Chief Operating Officer for GRESB (Global Real Estate Sustainability Benchmark, a consultancy that specializes in assessing environmental, social and governance policies) and co-author of the USGBC report Green Building and Climate Resilience. “The conditions our buildings are being operated in are out in front of us. We design our buildings to operate under conditions that happened 30 to 40 years ago, yet because we know the climate is changing, the conditions our buildings will experience in terms of temperature, precipitation, and other extreme events are not the conditions we assumed when we designed them.”

As climate-related emergencies become more intense and frequent – bringing longer and deeper rainfall, stronger wind, or harsher temperatures – it’s up to facilities managers to make sure they’re prepared for the worst.

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