Stewart Miller is the Sustainable Environment Officer (Estates & Buildings) at the University of Glasgow. He explains below how a new Climate Change Adaptation Plan is embedding climate ready thinking into the way the University manages its estate.
Planning development in the context of a changing climate
Along with managing and maintaining our historic buildings, the University is redeveloping our Gilmorehill campus, and developing a new campus at the Western Infirmary site. Planning for climate change adaptation will help to ensure that these new developments, along with existing buildings, campuses and infrastructure, are resilient to shifting weather patterns and remain safe and comfortable spaces for students and staff.
Planning for adaptation action
In late 2018 we released our first Adaptation Plan, which outlines a vision for a resilient and adapting University. This vision is supported by a clear and actionable framework that provides a roadmap for implementing short, medium and long term actions to increase the University’s resilience to climate change.
The Adaptation Plan was developed by working closely with staff working across different departments. We spent time working with diverse internal stakeholders, ensuring that key performance indicators were assigned to the right person and that people understood why adaptation is important and their role in implementing the plan.
long with sustainability officers, managers, directors and heads of services are identified as owners of short, medium and long term goals. This ensures that the push to adapt to climate change comes from the top, and our senior management team have clear goals and obligations. Creating this buy-in at the senior level is helping to embed adaptation into the way the University operates.
The Adaptation Plan works to embed climate into the University’s risk registers, and creates processes to manage and respond to risks. The plan identifies ‘what does good look like’ for short, medium and long term objectives, assigns responsibility and contains internal progress reporting requirements. Responsibility is spread across the University, and adaptation objectives overlap with design standards, health and safety, energy and waste, travel, human resources and asset management.
To make sure the Adaptation Plan is effective in achieving our objectives, we’ve created an extensive review process that will help us understand our strengths and weaknesses as we implement the plan. This includes a review by our organisation-wide Sustainability Working Group, as well as a six monthly review to assess progress on adaptation across the University.
We’re taking action to become climate ready across our organisation to ensure that the University remains a thriving educational and cultural hub for our 26,000 students and 8,000 staff
Stewart Miller
Webinar exploring how the University of Glasgow are using the Adaptation Capability Framework
Marie Porteous is Head of Sustainability & Environment Manager at NHS Lanarkshire. Marie explains how site based risk assessments are helping to inform climate ready decision making to ensure that patients and staff across Lanarkshire are safe and well cared for during extreme weather events.
Responding to climate risks
After severe winter weather a few years ago disrupted our ability to get staff and supplies safely to all of our sites, we realised we needed to better understand our vulnerability to climate impacts. Along with other Scottish Territorial & Special Boards, we started undertaking site based risk assessments through external risk management consultants. Once we understood the process, we began undertaking them internally. We now have risk assessments for our major sites, and are progressing through our community sites.
These site based risk assessments have allowed us to build a database of climate impacts, recording the frequency of events and, where possible, the costs that NHS Lanarkshire incurs as a result. We can draw on this information to understand our vulnerabilities to future climate change, and inform climate ready decisions and action. Data around the financial impact of climate change allows us to justify investment in action now.
Links to net zero action
At some of our sites that are at high risk of disruption from extreme winter weather, we have invested in adding electric/petrol hybrid four wheel drive vehicles to our fleet. These vehicles will ensure our sites can receive deliveries and have specimens etc. uplifted while at the same time reducing our carbon footprint. We are also investing in our staff, providing emergency planning and response training to help ensure that we are prepared for extreme weather.
Place-based and site specific action
We operate diverse sites, and each has its own operational and geographical challenges. Rather than focus on an organisation-wide risk assessment, we are considering the unique operational requirements of each site. This allows us to work with the relevant local authority, as our estate operates across both North Lanarkshire and South Lanarkshire Councils. We are working with both local authorities to build our understanding of climate impacts across Lanarkshire as whole, and in the meantime we are continuing with our site based risk assessments.
Our site risk assessments have identified climate risks that are now incorporated into our Corporate Risk Register. This register is reported on and reviewed regularly by our Sustainability Advisory Group. This regular reporting means that climate change is now firmly on the agenda for our senior management team, and has allowed us begin mainstreaming climate risk into our organisational practices.
Our database of climate impacts and costs allows us to make informed, climate ready decisions and take action now
Marie Porteous