
Improving community engagement
Exposed to westerly and south-westerly Atlantic weather systems, the Outer Hebrides are a series of islands where the inhabitants are already well versed in coping with severe weather.
Driven by a desire to improve engagement on climate risk and resilience with local communities, the Outer Hebrides Community Planning Partnership (OHCCP) Climate Change Working Group (CCWG), alongside the Làn Thìde Climate Beacon, the Adaptation Scotland programme, and the Met Office created a project to explore the development of a storyline to communicate climate change information to the Outer Hebrides community.

Examples of climate impact story mapping used in the project
Music from climate data
Collaborating with a local artist, Sandra Kennedy, a collection of musical pieces, collectively named Tuil is Geil (Gaelic for “Flood and Wind”) was created through a combination of sonified climate data, local voices and field recordings of local weather.
The three pieces were created and these musical pieces, alongside a science presentation on projections of climate change for the Outer Hebrides, formed the centre of public engagement sessions where members of the public were able to share their thoughts about climate vulnerabilities and adaptation needs on the islands.
These tools provide the OHCPP Climate Change Working Group and Làn Thìde with a new and innovative tool to communicate future climate trends and projections in a way that is interesting and accessible, to generate discussion and gather local knowledge and lived experience to inform adaptation planning activities.
Encouraging dialogue
The partners held an event in Stornoway to launch the music. Rather than using the pieces as a prompt for participants to discuss climate impacts and adaptation actions, the event was held more as a gentle and open space for people to react and process some of the emotions the pieces gave rise to.
A facilitated creative writing exercise known as the ‘Golden Shovel’ was used. Attendees were provided with quotes from transcripts of the verbal elements of the pieces, asked to choose one to work with, and wrote it down vertically on their paper. They then created poetry where each word of the quote formed the last word in each line of their poem. Participants then shared their poems with each other, which also allowed them to reflect on thoughts and feelings which had arisen while listening to the pieces.
Creating safe spaces for people involved in adaptation work to acknowledge and process the emotions that can often arise when thinking about climate impacts on their community are important, and these pieces combined with a creative exercise provided a useful, sensitive mechanism to do so.
Eleanor Pratt, Senior Climate Resilience Manager, Sniffer

Business resilience themes: Processes, Products and Services
Climate ready construction
On their work to construct a new, flagship building at Dunfermline Learning Campus for Fife College, Balfour Beatty and the design team, including Reiach and Hall Architects, Woolgar Hunter, and Atelier Ten, worked with the Adaptation Scotland programme to consider the current and potential future climate hazards facing the campus and its users, and how to deliver a campus that will be more resilient to the long-term impacts of climate change.
The College campus spans over 20,000m², and is an innovative venture from Fife College, it is part of a state of the art, sustainable shared learning campus for Dunfermline (Dunfermline College Campus, St Columba’s RC High School, and Woodmill High School).


Dunfermline Learning Campus is also the largest pathfinder project for the Scottish Government’s Net Zero Public Sector Buildings Standard in Scotland, which has established to drive net zero outcomes for new buildings and major refurbishments within the public sector. Fife College is the first project to explicitly include adaptation planning as part of the Standard in its design and delivery.
Resilience to climate change was identified as an important but equally new, and complex consideration for Fife College and Balfour Beatty, given the campus would need to withstand the increasing frequency and intensity of climate hazards such as heat, increased rainfall and windstorms over its long lifetime.
“It was great to have the support of the Adaptation Scotland programme to run these workshops for the first time. Although an important topic, this is something relatively new for us to consider however the tools available on the Adaptation Scotland website and really useful. We look forward to working with Sniffer to make sure these tools are more widely known and used within the construction industry and with our designers.”
Angela Pllu, Environmental Sustainability Manager, Balfour Beatty
Climate risk assessment and adaptation planning
To best consider climate adaptation, Fife College and Balfour Beatty worked with the Adaptation Scotland programme, using the A Changing Climate for Development tool kit to assess the climate resilience of the new campus, and explored the climate-driven hazards during the construction phase, using the Adaptation Scotland programme’s Climate Hazards in the Workplace tool kit.
The workshop explored the recent and projected changes to the climate in the Fife area, and how these climate-driven hazards would likely impact the structure and use of the new campus. The Adaptation Scotland programme team also supported participants to jointly identify potential adaptation actions, illustrated by case studies, and to prioritise those that could be implemented at this stage of construction.
From this work Balfour Beatty and its partners were able to identify actions to improve resilience including:
- Considering landscape design with climate resilient planting in mind – for instance, drought resistant plants, and more green space to provide cool areas during heat extremes.
- Consider prevailing wind directions and storm directions when designing rotating/automatic doors.
- Strategies for working during extreme weather, at the college, in design offices and on a construction site. When would people not be expected to travel into the facility and when could offices offer more comfortable alternatives to homes.
- Positioning of critical infrastructure such as IT servers away from areas potentially more at risk from extreme weather conditions such as flooding.
- Considering where internal drainage downpipes are located and leak detection to prevent damage to buildings/IT equipment etc. in extreme wet weather.

Image from the workshop
Assessing climate risks and potential adaptation options is best done at an early stage of project development. The Adaptation Scotland programme team supported Balfour Beatty and partners to identify opportunities in the project development process to undertake a similar assessment in future work to ensure climate risks and adaptation options are identified earlier.
With the advice and support of the Adaptation Scotland programme, Balfour Beatty, its partners and Fife College have been able to identify and implement practical measures that will be critical to ensuring a safe learning environment at the new Dunfermline Campus as the climate evolves.
Lessons from this projected have provided the basis for Balfour Beatty and Fife College to integrate considerations of key climate risks across future infrastructure and construction projects, including a planned College-wide climate risk assessment of the whole Fife College estate, and at least two further climate risk and adaptation workshops for existing projects being delivered by Balfour Beatty.
“Fife College is taking action on the climate emergency, and we have ambitions to do more and more. Our new Dunfermline campus is a low carbon beacon project and part of the Net Zero Public Sector Building Standard. We want to provide inspirational learning spaces for our future students, and we know we have to adapt and be resilient to the effects of climate change.”
Jim Metcalfe, Fife College Principal

Business resilience themes: Place
Business Profile
Possilpark has experienced significant changes over recent years as is similar for many town centre areas throughout Scotland. It has a consistent, high-ranking position in the Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation which exacerbates day to day challenges for businesses. Litter, fly-tipping, crime, feelings of safety alongside access issues are a problem for many businesses.
The rise in energy costs is putting more pressure on businesses and the impacts of climate change add even more pressure. The town centre requires a continued coordinated response from all businesses to address these problems.

The Possilpark BID is branded as Remaking Saracen
Climate impacts
Possilpark is exposed to a number of climate risks which have affected businesses in recent years. These include:
- Flooding in the high street: Saracen Street forms the main high street in Possilpark, and the area has faced significant and repeated flooding in recent years. Even on dry days, there are often multiple areas of pooled water, often blocking access for disabled residents and customers, resulting in reduced customer footfall. This is also linked to litter issues, where wind has caused litter to spill into the street and clog up drains.
- Overheating in outdoor areas: While businesses haven’t faced significant issues with indoor heat stress, this has been an issue for the areas around Saracen Street, including Millennium Square where there is little shade nor green space available. This has made it less attractive for people to use take-away food outlets nearby, or to spend time in the area and continue to shop throughout the day.
- Extreme wind and storms: Residents described Saracen Street as a ‘wind tunnel’, making it a less pleasant place to spend time. The lack of trees and shelter has exacerbated this issue, and some damage to shop fronts and buildings has occurred.
Actions taken
In 2024 the Possilpark Business Improvement District took part in a pilot project as part of Glasgow City Council’s Green Business Support programme, which helps local companies transition to Net-Zero, reduce their energy costs and become more resilient to climate change. As part of this project, the sustainability charity Sniffer supported the Business Improvement District to understand its climate risks and prioritise the resilience actions the business can take.
This included a collaborative climate risk and opportunities mapping event. This brought together members of the Business Improvement District, customers, and local residents associations to collectively map key hazards, and identify potential actions to improve business resilience and make Saracen Street and the surrounding area a more pleasant, inviting, and thriving place. A graphic illustrating the hazards and opportunities was produced, and is being used to inform the next stage of plans for the Possilpark Business Improvement District.

An illustration from the climate risk and opportunities mapping event in February 2024

Business resilience themes: Premises, People, Processes
Business Profile
Film City Glasgow is a vital production base for much of the feature film and television industry within Scotland.
The facilities comprise of production office space, studio/build space, workshop areas, rehearsal/meeting rooms, a café and creative business officers. It is home to over 25 permanent tenants from the screen and wider creative industries. It also has flexible low-cost short-term space hire. Users of the space include Film City Glasgow workers, tenants, short term production teams, freelancers, interns, and occasionally members of the public.
The core of the site is the Victoria-era former Govan Town Hall, a Category B listed building. The redevelopment of the site has retained many of the original features of the building. A new extension was added in 2008.

Climate impacts
Film City Glasgow is exposed to a number of climate risks which have affected the businesses operations in recent years . These include:
- Disruption for freelancers and lone workers: Production company teams often include a high proportion of freelancers whose job security may be precarious, for example when schedules are interrupted or delayed because of extreme weather events. Reducing the likelihood and or extent of delays is financially beneficial to production companies and their freelancers. Out of hours lone working is common, especially in post-production. Lone workers can be at risk on large complex multi-use sites from extreme weather events because their whereabouts may be unknown.
- Flooding to basement and outdoor areas: The boiler plant, main electricity supply to the building and the switch gear are in the basement, which has experienced flooding. More significant flooding is possible, as building is in a medium flood risk area, which could cause significant damage to both the building and critical infrastructure.
- Storm and freeze/thaw damage to external masonry: The building has ornate sandstone features and details. Several elements of the building require maintenance or reinstatement works to maintain their structural integrity to be resilient to extreme weather conditions.
Actions taken
In 2023 Film City Glasgow took part in a pilot project as part of Glasgow City Council’s Green Business Support programme, which helps local companies transition to Net-Zero, reduce their energy costs and become more resilient to climate change.
As part of this project, the sustainability charity Sniffer supported Film City Glasgow to understand its climate risks and prioritise the resilience actions the business can take. These included:
- Wellbeing, and health and safety policies: climate change risks and resilience actions have been integrated into the organisation’s health and safety policies and plans. This has included input from the individuals working in the facility and their support and health and safety requirements from the risks posed by climate change impacts.
- Business risk assessment: The potential risks associated with the climate change hazards identified in the work with Sniffer has helped to strengthen Film City Glasgow’s approach to business risk assessments, and identified a number of actions they can take immediately to ensure all relevant risk are considered. This has included more comfortable temperatures in all areas of the building for all users.
- Flood risk management: Critical items are raised on a 30cm concrete plinth to minimise flood damage. Film City Glasgow are also exploring further flood prevention measures, and have signed up to the SEPA flood alert system.
“I wasn’t really sure what to expect, but the holistic approach to climate resilience was a breath of fresh air. We’ve been looking at building fabric, retrofit, and undertaken net zero training recently. But the resilience approach brought in other experiential considerations including the individuals working in the facility and their support and health and safety requirements. Also, illuminating on how the wider area interfaces with our building and thinking on climate resilience should be beyond our four walls.”
Tiernan Kelly, Director, Film City Glasgow

Business resilience themes: Premises, People, Products and Services
Business Profile
Sprigg is a food takeaway found in the heart of Glasgow, serving fresh salads, snacks and coffee. The business has three premises: two shop units and a warehouse. Sustainability is at the heart of the company’s ethos and brand, as well as to save costs.
The majority of company’s sales are takeaway, with some sit-in and some external catering. Distribution is a critical aspect of the business, particularly in relation to their day-to-day operations; moving goods from the preparation kitchen to the two stores, and from cafés to individuals via delivery services.

Climate impacts
Sprigg is exposed to a number of climate risks which have affected the businesses operations in recent years. These include:
- Overheating risk to food and staff. Both shops have experienced overheating during particularly high temperatures in recent summers. This has impacted on staff welfare, customer comfort, and could post a risk to food safety, particularly for open-display fridge units.
- Adverse weather has affected customer footfall. Periods of stormy or wet weather have had a considerable impact on footfall to the shops. There have been observed drops of 40% during adverse weather days, mostly due to trains not running and/or people choosing not to travel into the city and working from home instead.
- Disruption to supply chain. The business relies on daily deliveries between preparation kitchen and shop units. Deliveries and collections have been impacted by major roads disruption due to flooding. There is some storage at preparation kitchen, however the business relies on the flow of regular deliveries for fresh goods.
- Increased costs of goods (e.g. climate shocks causing food price spikes). The business prides itself on its fresh produce and range of ingredients customers can choose from. Some ingredients have been impacted by unexpected climate shocks to food production, locally and globally. The business has had to take certain items off the menu and replace them, such as during the shortage of salad from Spain due to extreme drought. The business’ custom bowls provide more flexibility to substitute ingredients than the fixed bowls, which would require changes to menu boards.
“The temperature in the shop was chronically bad … and it wasn’t when we opened it. I mean it’s always been warm, but it’s never been as bad as it was last year and even this year.”
Tom McDermott, Owner of Sprigg
Actions taken
In 2023 Sprigg took part in a pilot project as part of Glasgow City Council’s Green Business Support programme, which helps local companies transition to Net-Zero, reduce their energy costs and become more resilient to climate change.
As part of this project, the sustainability charity Sniffer supported Sprigg to understand its climate risks and prioritise the resilience actions the business can take. These included:
- Responding to heat stress. Overheating during summer months was identified as a critical issue. Sprigg decided to install heat reducing film after a recommendation and visit to a nearby shoe shop that also use the film. It is claimed to reduce heat penetration through the glass by 66%. This has been combined with installation of an air-con unit.
- Externalised machinery in the warehouse production unit. To address overheating issues at the warehouse unit where the business prepares the fresh food, Sprigg decided to move some machinery outside. Workers noticed the walk-in chiller was giving off a lot of heat, so decided to site that outside. Since then they have noted a positive impact on working temperatures.
- Exploring installing solar panels on the production unit. Power supply to the production unit was highlighted as a risk, and vulnerable to extreme weather impacting local energy supply. Sprigg are currently investigating funding to install solar panels at the production unit, both to reduce the environmental impact of energy consumption and provide a more resilient energy supply that would not be impacted by wider network outages.
“My advice would be do what you can. Try and see sustainability as a commercial benefit rather than a cost. It can feel overwhelming but get started and explore the support that is out there. It’s our role as SMEs to lead by example and encourage the big businesses to change too, and deliver positive impact at scale.”
Tom McDermott, Owner of Sprigg

Owner Tom McDermott and Sniffer’s Aoife Hutton inspect new solar film used on the cafe windows

Victoria Barby is the Environment Performance Manager with the Scottish Parliament. Below Victoria explains how a business continuity approach to adaptation is being used to ensure that the Scottish Parliament is a safe and functional space for lawmaking, even during extreme weather.
One of our major challenges is how to keep Parliament safe and functional, and adaptation will increasingly be a factor in planning for this. A Climate Impact Assessment Workshop in 2016 found that the Parliament building is already quite resilient to climate impacts. However, the logistics of getting staff and Members to the building, as well as ensuring that local offices are climate resilient, is a challenge.
A recommendation from the Impact Assessment Workshop was to track climate related disruption at the Scottish Parliament. This, along with progress on climate change adaptation is now reported at the Environment Strategy Board meetings. Regular reporting helps build a case for investing in adaptation that aligns with wider priorities, and helps us develop long term adaptation actions.
During the 2018 summer heatwave, the Parliament building was at risk of overheating. As a result, I am now working with the Business Continuity Team to develop a long term, strategic approach to climate adaptation, informed by the climate impacts already captured in our reporting processes. To fully consider how future climate change may threaten business continuity at Scottish Parliament, we are planning to undertake a risk assessment. This will be used to develop an Adaptation Plan and supporting processes that will ensure the Parliament is climate ready, and able to continue operating safely throughout extreme weather events.
We are considering a range of actions, including options like remote working and using technology to support flexible workplace practices to maintain functionality of Parliament throughout extreme weather events. While some core staff are needed on the premises of Parliament to ensure the safe and effective running of the building, flexible working options can reduce the strain on Edinburgh’s public transport system during extreme weather events, ensuring that core facilities staff are able to travel to work.
Taking a business continuity approach to planning adaptation actions is helping us to think practically about how climate change may impact our ability to function, and develop short and long term adaptation actions that will ensure the Scottish Parliament is able to operate during extreme weather events.
Victoria Barby

This case study provides an overview of Forestry and Land Scotland’s adaptation story so far and includes by in-depth insights on the experience of using the Adaptation Capability Framework, focused on the Organisational Culture and Resources capability.
About Forestry and Land Scotland
Forestry and Land Scotland (FLS) is the Scottish Government agency that looks after Scotland’s national forests and land. It does this in a way that supports and enables economically sustainable forestry, conserves and enhances the environment and delivers benefits for people and nature. FLS was established as a successor to the Forestry Commission in Scotland, as an executive agency of the Scottish Government in 2019. It is a ‘public corporation’ involved in commercial trading activity, with all incomes reinvested into the management of national forests and land. More detail, including on their approach to climate change adaptation, can be found in their corporate plan.
Adapting to climate change at FLS
Adaptation is not new to FLS. It has been doing it for decades – both in its previous guise as FES and, since 2019 when FLS was established. That year also saw Scotland declare a Climate Emergency and this, together with new policies including Scotland’s Forestry Strategy and Scottish Climate Change Adaptation Programme culminated in FLS taking a strategic approach to adaptation and ensuring that the concept was integrated throughout the organisation and it’s forestry operations. FLS is committed to playing its role in climate adaptation and has been actively using Adaptation Scotland’s Adaptation Capability Framework since 2019.
Like making sure you pick up the right planting spade when you plant a tree –the Adaptation Capability Framework has been the right tool at the right time for FLS
Like making sure you pick up the right planting spade when you plant a tree –the Adaptation Capability Framework has been the right tool at the right time for FLS
Alan Gale, Adaptation and Resilience Programme Manager
Benchmarking
Before using the Framework to progress tasks in practice, FLS’s Land Management team first undertook a Benchmarking Workshop – using the Adaptation Scotland Benchmarking Tool – to identify and understand its organisational position within the Adaptation Capability Framework. Benchmarking helps provide a baseline assessment of an organisation’s adaptation capabilities and highlights those areas the organisation is excelling in and others where more work may be needed.
The benchmarking workshop identified which capability tasks were already underway and which ones needed to be acted upon. Mapping the corporate plan against the Framework identified which actions were relevant to FLS, illustrated how adaptation could support achieving corporate plan objectives and teased out what adaptation actions were still required.
Running a workshop with representatives from different departments at the beginning of the process helped achieve understanding, buy in and support from across the organisation in using the Framework. Being honest about assessing progress is important to understand where the organisation currently is and where it wants to go. FLS used the Benchmarking assessment as a way to motivate further use of the Adaptation Capability Framework and taking adaptation action.
Organisational Culture and Resources
The organisation subsequently endorsed the use of Framework in January 2020 and adaptation is now a corporate programme and responsibility with senior management support. The Executive Team have taken ownership of adaptation and identified topic experts/change agents across departments, ensuring a holistic and joined up approach. Forestry and Land Scotland has greatly developed the Organisational Culture & Resources capability – and this has been integral to their adaptation progress.
The experience of FLS demonstrates the huge role of organisational culture – and the importance of senior managers and adaptation champions supporting climate adaptation. Forestry Land Scotland’s launch, as a successor to FES, has enabled them to start to develop a new culture and provided a rich opportunity to engage on adaptation. The new Executive Team was willing to try new approaches and was cognisant of the importance of climate change adaptation and the vital role Scotland’s forests have in addressing climate change. Management buy-in to adaptation was secured by working closely with a number of supportive Executive Team members and helping them to influence other board members.
Identifying and securing resources for adaptation
FLS recognises that adaptation is an important part of its role as custodians of Scotland’s national forests and land and is conscious that the trees it plants today need to be suitable for the climate of 2050 and beyond. It also recognises that in the future, looking after our forests may cost more – for example, having to construct larger culverts, greater species variation when planting, adapting species choice to fit the changing climate or having to erect more fencing to prevent saplings suffering from browsing damage. However, quicker tree growth and higher yields resulting from a warmer environment will see an increase in income that will help to fund adaptation.
The adaptation team is currently exploring what is needed in order to become resilient to climate change and associated impacts (such as increase in pests and diseases), an exercise that will inform budget requirements. It is recognised that future costs can be minimised with good adaptation planning now, including exploring how changes can be taken advantage of. By integrating adaptation responsibilities across the organisation, more suitable guidance can be devised and appropriate budgeting ensured.
This work, guided by a risk register approach, also benefits from the organisation’s longer-term view, illustrated by its review of all land management plans on a decadal cycle. Climate change considerations are integrated into decision-making processes across the organisation so that FLS can make the best decisions for our forests both now and in the future.
Governance arrangement for adaptation
FLS has built different mechanisms at various levels of the organisation from identifying individual ‘change agents’ in key business areas, to steering groups to guide adaptation action; to leadership from the Executive Team. The Executive Team have oversight of all adaptation activities and this mandate across the organisation adds value and impetus to the work across all levels. By working together towards strategic adaptation objectives FLS has achieved a step change towards becoming a well adapting and mature public body.
Identifying and working with topic experts and change agents – and having senior level champions on the Executive Team and Finance Board – has been crucial for FLS. Adaptation is recognised as being an iterative process and that embedding adaptation within the organisation will be a gradual process. This will be achieved both through the forest plan review process, and the establishment of an adaptation strategy/plan (centred on four adaptation outcomes) that will place climate change adaptation at the heart of all internal guidance, policy and practice.
Lessons learned
Avoiding adaptation is not an option for the public sector – climate impacts are already being experienced and public bodies, as providers of a range of local services, play an important role in adapting to a changing climate. Organisations do have a choice in which resources they use to support adaptation planning. The Framework provides a structured way to progress adaptation and acts as a mechanism to ‘hang your work on’, be that pre-existing or planned adaptation activities.
Take time to understand the Framework and the available resources before getting stuck in. Whilst it can look daunting at first, there are a lot of resources to help you understand and use the Framework like the Handbook and the Starter Pack – working through those first will give organisations a solid foundation to build further adaptation work on.
Get as many people as possible involved at the start. Running a workshop with representatives from different departments at the beginning of the process helped achieve understanding, buy in and support from across the organisation in using the Framework.
Figure out what is right for your organisation. The Framework is comprised of 50 tasks – it is important to realise you do not have to hit every single one of them straight away. Take time to consider what your organisation has already done on adaptation (and celebrate that), understand your organisational objectives and adaptation aims and figure out which capability tasks support you to get there. Undertaking a Benchmarking workshop helps identify what is relevant for your organisation and helps track progress over time.
Let colleagues know what you are doing – provide regular updates and share copies of the Handbook, Benchmarking assessment or your organisation’s completed Starter Pack to others to keep them up to speed and provide opportunity to get involved. Be honest in benchmarking. It’s OK to find out that your organisation hasn’t already made much progress – the important thing is to ensure that you’re heading in the right direction from where you are now.
Work with senior managers to demonstrate the benefits of adaptation and the advantage of using the Adaptation Capability Framework and make sure they are well briefed and fully equipped with understanding of the process before sharing with other board members.

John Burnside is the Environment & Sustainability Manager with NHS Highland. He sets out below how NHS Highland have piloted a climate change risk assessment toolkit across their operations and estate.
NHS Highland has responsibility for over 230 buildings spread across an area equivalent to the size of Belgium. Many of the communities that we service are remote and rural, which creates particular challenges when thinking about climate risk. To ensure that we are able to provide high quality health services to the diverse communities in the Highlands, we are piloting a climate change risk assessment toolkit. The initial approach to assessing climate risks was developed in collaboration with NHS National Services Scotland as part of a cross sector Risk Assessment Working Group, which brought together Scottish Water, Aberdeen City Council and Historic Environment Scotland and was facilitated by Adaptation Scotland. An internal NHS working group was then established to oversee the development of the risk assessment tool, ensuring that it is user friendly for Health Boards.
At NHS Highland, we were the first Board to use the risk assessment tool to undertake a comprehensive regional assessment of current and future climate risk to health care facilities. SEPA data on flood risk and a high level Climate Change Impact Assessment for NHS Highland were used to inform the process. We also undertook internal workshops to understand how past extreme weather impacted on the delivery of healthcare services across our Estate. Over the past year, the risk assessment toolkit has been tested and reviewed by our estate managers. Their practical insights and feedback have helped us to develop an easy to use resource that can be applied to our main regional hospitals and smaller community health centres. We have also spent time building internal capacity around climate change risk and adaptation.
Our estate is managed to a 12 month maintenance cycle, and staff are used to thinking about their roles their workplaces within this 12 month context. This can make it difficult to think about long term challenges of climate change in their day to day jobs. As we roll out the climate change risk assessment toolkit, we’ll be working with staff on site to ensure that climate risk and adaptation are well understood, and adaptation is integrated into the way we manage our health care facilities.
Once we have collected information on the climate risks relating to the estate, these will be incorporated into site-based risk registers, which will feed into our corporate risk register and strategic risk register.
Building a strong evidence base for climate risk and embedding it into our risk registers will give us a clear understanding of the long term challenges and opportunities of maintaining healthcare facilities across our estate.

Scottish Canals are responsible for managing over 4100 assets that comprise our five Scottish canals, as well as the bridges, buildings, locks, water supply reservoirs and landmarks like the Falkirk Wheel and the Kelpies that make up Scotland’s inland waterways network. Much of this 140-mile network is inland, with only 6 coastal connections that are vulnerable to rising sea levels. The rest of the network is reasonably resilient to climate impacts in the short term, and can even contribute to resilience more broadly through initiatives such as the Glasgow Smart Canal Project. The Smart Canal is helping to manage flood risk and move water resources during projected hotter and drier summers.
Each one of its diverse assets has unique management and maintenance challenges which must be addressed to ensure that they remain safe and available for the millions of visitors who use the network each year. In the long term climate change will alter the way the assets deteriorate, and Scottish Canals’ Asset Management Strategy ensures that when making management decisions, climate impacts are taken into consideration, such as potential changes in rainfall, temperature and extreme weather that will contribute to the deterioration of assets.
To respond to uncertainty around how climate change will interact with its assets in the long term, Scottish Canals have developed a flexible planning approach to manage its assets in a way that is responsive to emerging risks. The Asset Management Strategy outlines how they will manage their priorities until 2030 to ensure the safety and long term sustainability of their assets. This long-term strategic direction is delivered through a 3 year forward looking Asset Management Plan that is reviewed and updated on an annual basis. This flexible management cycle allows Scottish Canals to take new and emerging risks into account, including those related to climate change.
Our flexible, risk-based approach to asset management is agile and responsive to direct and indirect climate impacts, allowing us to prioritise and plan a work programme that keeps Scotland’s canals safe and productive
Peter Robinson

Video of Scottish Canals case study

Horticulture and visitor services staff at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh and its Regional Gardens are already adapting to climate uncertainty – dealing with floods, prolonged periods of low rainfall, unseasonable temperatures and high winds, and the impacts of pests, diseases and invasive non-native species. This case study looks at the process used to investigate the impact of weather events across the different gardens and how this can be used to best deal with projected climate change.
Some adaptation measures include:
- Planting a mix of species. This increases resilience to pests and diseases, and provides a more effective windbreak and structure to shelter belts.
- When re-designing garden infrastructure, locate facilities such as visitor centres and cafes outside the pay zone to provide access even if the garden is closed.
- When planning staff resource and time, include allowance for clearup and remedial work following extreme weather events.
- Replacing paths with gravel or other porous materials.
- Providing additional drainage and factoring in staff time for keeping drains clear.