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January 2018 — Property Management Quarterly — Page 21
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M ost real estate managers
already have practices to
deal with current climate
variations, such as plans
for snow and ice removal,
severe weather shelters, and climate-
control features for indoor and out-
door workers. However, when look-
ing at the future impacts of climate
variations, facility owners cannot
simply rely on the assumptions that
climate will remain consistent. It is
important that owners and facility
managers work together to prepare
for resiliency and adaptation to cli-
mate change.
There is a shift in the way real
estate managers should begin to pre-
pare and plan for effective adaptation
to the long-term effects of climate
change. While the focus was once
on a reactive approach to climate-
related issues for facilities, building
resiliency is a more proactive process
that takes into consideration the
various roles managers and owners
play and how they work together for
the short- and long-term strategies
for a property.
Both parties take on separate roles
when it comes to preparations, but
they must work
together to ensure
success. Facility
managers will be
impacted by the
day-to-day chal-
lenges that climate
variations pose.
For example, facil-
ity managers must
budget for things
like salt and snow
removal and will
need to change
their approach as
climate fluctuations
occur. Expected weather patterns
and established “climate norms” are
changing year after year, driving the
need for updates to plans and pro-
cesses. Managers are tasked with
ensuring everything runs smoothly
and efficiently surrounding the infra-
structure and the short-term weather
problems that occur.
While property managers look at
the near-term effects, property own-
ers are faced with the long-term
implications of climate variation.
Owners should be focused more
toward building resiliency throughout
their commercial real estate assets.
Their first responsibility is to protect
the value of their investment, so they
must ensure their building design
can withstand the projected climate
threats that are coming toward their
region. For example, instead of sizing
air-conditioning units to handle cur-
rent average summer temperatures,
it could be beneficial to assess the
threat posed by increasing average or
maximum high temperatures driven
by climate change. Owners should be
looking ahead to see if there are long-
term solutions to apply to design of
their infrastructure to better prepare
for the coming years.
So how do the two levels effectively
work together? It all starts with a
simple conversation. Both owners
and managers have roles that com-
plement each other and are impor-
tant for the success of real estate
properties. The first step in develop-
ing a planning process is to come
together and identify key stakehold-
ers throughout the organization to
make the planning process more
effective and ensure there aren’t any
crucial parts left out. There isn’t one
person who has full knowledge of the
workings of an entire building.
After key stakeholders are identi-
fied, the next step is to establish a
climate baseline and develop a pro-
jection scenario to inform the risk
assessment process. Climate change
models vary in scale and scope, and
the challenge lies in downscaling the
model outputs to a regional, local or
facility-specific level. Likewise, vary-
ing emissions scenarios play a role
in the timing and severity of pro-
jected climate threats. Blending these
model outputs with additional analy-
sis creates a clear picture of what can
be expected, which allows for a more
focused risk assessment process.
Effectively communicating these
future climate scenarios to your
key stakeholders should be a prior-
ity. Once everyone is on the same
page regarding expected threats, it
becomes easier to quickly identify
the biggest threats, potential oppor-
tunities and priorities for building
resiliency. It is important to identify
assets and prioritize them in order of
adaptive capacity and determine if
they pose a long-term or short-term
threat.
Conducting a risk assessment is
a critical process through which
owners and managers identify the
impacts and risks of climate change
for their building, and how it might
impact their critical assets. The goal
is to understand how changes in a
specific climate variable will impact
key assets and building systems and
proactively plan for ways to mitigate
potential harm.
Developing a strategic planning
process and identifying best practices
surrounding how real estate manag-
ers and owners can work together
to ensure success is crucial when
it comes to the impacts of climate
variations. Both roles complement
one another and are necessary to
find a successful approach to protect-
ing assets and real estate. Enhancing
common practices most organiza-
tions already have in place that deal
with current climate variations will
help develop a long-term scope to
ensure everyone is prepared moving
forward.▲
Miranda Mair
Quality scientist
and meteorologist,
Wenck, Golden
Valley, Minnesota
Owners should be looking ahead to see if there
are long-term solutions to apply to design of
their infrastructure to better prepare for the
coming years.