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SUSTAINABLE BUILDINGS

Asset Classes

Focus Area

Resilience and Site

Topic

Climate Hazards and Risks

Question #

R2.2 — Rank Climate Risks

Question

Have the climate risks been ranked and assessed for the building and site?

Applicability

Applicable to all buildings (systems or equipment in the owner or landlord’s control)

Answer

Yes or No

Description

Commercial real estate Suggested Leaders are increasingly recognizing the risks posed by extreme weather events that will continue to occur more frequently than in the past. Design and operations need to focus on business continuity, safety, and wellbeing to reduce risks to assets, occupant health and safety, and services.

Climate risks can be assessed on the basis of the likelihood of a high impact climate hazard occurring and the severity of the consequences to property components, people and systems that may occur. Consequences can include health and safety, displacement, asset damage, inaccessible and unusable space, legal liability, increased insurance premiums, supply chain and service interruptions, reputational impact, increased operations and maintenance costs, environmental effects, and other considerations.

The inclusion of climate resilience in planning, preparation, and implementation projects will reduce risks to ensure that people and property are protected, costs are minimized, reputation is maintained, environmental effects are reduced, and asset value is enhanced.

Requirements

    1. Conduct a Climate Risk Assessment. Include information on the relative likelihood of occurrence for each hazard identified and the potential impacts.
    2. For each high-risk hazard identified, determine the likelihood of occurrence through 2040. Rate and describe potential consequences on the building components identified as vulnerable to that hazard.

For example: major floods occur annually and are projected to increase in frequency by 2050, so the likelihood could be rated as ‘high.’ If the mechanical systems are vulnerable to flooding and located in the basement, the consequences of a flood event impacting the mechanical equipment could be total loss of HVAC systems and requirement for replacement, so the consequence could be rated as ‘high.’ However, if the mechanical room is on an upper floor, the consequence of a flood to that system could be ‘low.’

    1. From this review, identify the highest risks based on the most significant consequences for the most likely, high-impact relevant hazards, where Risk = Likelihood x Consequences).

For example: provision of equipment and supplies, infrastructure upgrades, or retrofits to improve resiliency.

    1. Provide an explanation/Description of the data sources, methodologies and Representative Concentration Pathway (RCP) scenario(s) used to determine the highest or most important risks facing the building and site

Documentation

    • Building-Specific Climate Change Risk or Resilience Report

Adapted BB3 Question

New in BOMA BEST 4.0

Suggested Lead

Third-party

References

IPCC, Climate Data Canada, CCME Assessment GuidanceICLEI Canada Also refer to the BOMA website under ‘climate resilience.’

ISO 31000:2018

Ontario Climate Change and Health Toolkit

PIEVC Engineering Protocol

BARC Milestone 2

Acceptable asset-level risk assessment frameworks include: CRREM PIEVC ISO 31000 GRESB BOMA Canada will accept other frameworks if equivalency is proven.

Crosswalk

TBD

Other Notes

Climate projection data referenced as part of hazard identification will typically include likelihood or increases in occurrence.

Identification of level of risk will vary for each organization, and criteria for determining high, medium, and low consequence and risk should be established internally.

A recommended scenario is Representative Concentration Pathway 8.5 (RCP8.5) from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

Scoring

4 points

Verification