What should Facility Managers and Capital Planners do to prepare for climate change?

Climate change has become one of the most significant concerns of our time, as evidenced by the recent destruction caused by hurricanes, Henri and Ida. Therefore, properly maintaining infrastructure is extremely important, particularly as many weather patterns continue to change. More extreme climate disasters are increasingly becoming the norm rather than the exception. 

The health of the built environment and infrastructure is an environmental issue. The well-being of our buildings and infrastructure directly impacts the well-being of humans and the environment. In this way, maintaining the built environment—our buildings, dams, bridges, power grids, and transportation systems—is crucial.

See our guide to how data visualization is changing architecture, engineering, and construction.

Designing and maintaining genuinely sustainable and resilient buildings is becoming increasingly important to offset the potential of damage caused by climate change.

The Cost of Climate Disasters

The United States has experienced some of the most challenging climate conditions among industrialized nations in recent years.

The numbers are sobering:

• In 2021 (as of July 9), eight climate disaster events have been with losses exceeding $1 billion each to affect the United States.
• These events included one drought event, two flooding events, four severe storm events, and one winter storm event.
• Overall, these events resulted in the deaths of 331 people and have had significant economic effects on the areas impacted.
• Since 1980, the U.S. has sustained 298 weather and climate disasters where general damages reached or exceeded $1 billion (including CPI adjustment to 2021). 
• The total cost of these 298 events exceeds $1.975 trillion.

Image via The National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI)

The health of our country's infrastructure is key to our nation's success. Yet, our nation's infrastructure, schools, office buildings, roads, bridges, drainage systems are the most vulnerable and susceptible to episodes of extreme weather.

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These facilities are critical: they provide essential services. In addition, local and national agencies rely on infrastructure to function correctly and provide protection for our nation and citizens in the face of extreme weather events.

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Scientists and economists predict climate change will increase extreme weather events like hurricanes, flooding, and winter storms. All of which negatively impact the structural integrity of buildings and infrastructure.

Protecting buildings against future natural disasters and scheduling and carrying out repairs to weather damage presents a significant challenge for facility managers and capital planning executives.

Weather Damage in Context

Damage to infrastructure and logistics can compromise the reputation that the organization has worked so diligently to establish. For example, suppose rain or wind destroys a power source, and the facility's backup generators are not in good working condition. 

In that case, this would result in a failure of care for building occupants across the entire network of facilities. Building occupants who require power-sourced supplies will face a life or death situation due to the facility's lack of climate resilience.

View these case studies to gain valuable insights into how we have helped facility managers solve complex problems in a wide variety of industry sectors.

Extreme weather impacts physical asset components and can disturb supply chain distribution, critical to facility functionality. Thus, maintaining a successful facility combines many functions and procedures that all work together seamlessly.

FOUNDATION is a market-leading Facility and Capital Planning software solution making facility condition assessment, facility services programs, and capital planning more efficient. 

Here are the top benefits of The FOUNDATION Solution by Intellis:

• Create a single source of truth for asset data across all building and systems portfolios.
• Deliver consistent and valuable Facility Condition Assessment data across all asset types, including building and site assets.
• Powerful reporting and analytics allow your team to have real-time KPIs that support benchmarking, decision making, and performance monitoring.
• Manage multiple asset portfolios, knowing where best to spend budget for optimal asset performance.
• Develop informed and dynamic capital investment strategies while identifying funding risks and opportunities.

Ready to learn more?

Please speak to us directly to learn how FOUNDATION will improve your facility management and capital planning efforts today.