Climate Risk + Resilience Playbook (Ops + Insurance Readiness)

A practical readiness system: identify hazards, harden operations, document resilience, and reduce chaos during incidents (not insurance advice)

Decision KitsPlaybook90 min

Important: This is operational guidance, not insurance or legal advice. Use appropriate professionals for risk assessments and insurance decisions.

What you'll accomplish

  • Screen sites for climate-related hazards in a consistent way
  • Identify critical systems and single points of failure
  • Build a resilience action plan (immediate + medium-term + long-term)
  • Improve incident response readiness (roles, checklists, vendors)
  • Assemble documentation that supports insurance and internal governance

Who this is for

  • •Operations/facilities teams responsible for uptime and safety
  • •Asset/portfolio managers responsible for resilience planning
  • •Finance/risk teams working with insurance and claims
  • •Sustainability teams integrating resilience into planning

When to use this

Use this when:

  • •You've experienced outages, floods, heat events, smoke, storms, or repeated disruptions
  • •Insurance requirements or premiums are rising
  • •Leadership wants "what are our biggest risks and what are we doing about it?"

Prerequisites (minimum viable)

  • •Portfolio roster with addresses
  • •Basic facility system information (even high-level)
  • •A place to store evidence and plans (consistent folder structure)

Related resources:

Quick start (90 minutes)

Pick 3 sites:

  • Fill Hazard Profile (Template 1)
  • Fill Critical Systems Register (Template 2)
  • Identify top 5 resilience actions (Template 3)
  • Draft an Emergency Response Checklist (Template 5)

Climate risk in plain English

This is not abstract. It shows up as:

  • •power outages
  • •heat stress and HVAC failures
  • •flooding and water intrusion
  • •wildfire smoke and air quality issues
  • •wind/hail damage
  • •supply chain disruptions for critical repairs

Beginner rule: Resilience is mostly about preparedness and weak points, not "perfect prediction."

Step-by-step

Step 1 — Hazard screening (portfolio-wide)

Use broad hazard categories:

  • •flood / water
  • •extreme heat
  • •wildfire smoke
  • •wind / hail / storms
  • •power reliability

Start with a directional rating (L/M/H). Improve later.

Step 2 — Identify critical systems and dependencies

List:

  • •electrical service and backup power
  • •HVAC critical systems
  • •pumps and drainage
  • •communications and monitoring
  • •access and security systems

Step 3 — Define "failure modes" and what breaks first

Example failure modes:

  • •"power outage → loss of HVAC → tenant disruption"
  • •"storm → roof leak → water intrusion → equipment damage"
  • •"heat wave → peak demand → HVAC trips → comfort complaints"

Step 4 — Resilience action planning (3 horizons)

Immediate (0–90 days):

  • •update emergency checklists
  • •confirm vendor contacts and response SLAs
  • •pre-stage critical parts
  • •inspect drainage and known weak points

Medium-term (3–12 months):

  • •install sensors/monitoring
  • •add operational redundancies
  • •improve access to backup power solutions (where relevant)

Long-term (12–36 months):

  • •capex hardening
  • •major system upgrades
  • •site-specific resilience retrofits

Step 5 — Incident response system

Define:

  • •roles (incident commander, facilities lead, comms lead)
  • •escalation ladder
  • •"first 2 hours" checklist
  • •post-incident documentation process

Step 6 — Insurance readiness (documentation hygiene)

Keep:

  • •maintenance logs
  • •inspection records
  • •photos (before/after)
  • •vendor invoices and work orders
  • •incident timeline notes

Documentation is a force multiplier during claims and internal reviews.

Templates

Template 1 — Site Hazard Profile

Site Hazard Profile

| Site | Flood risk (L/M/H) | Heat risk (L/M/H) | Smoke risk (L/M/H) | Wind/hail risk (L/M/H) | Power reliability risk (L/M/H) | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|

Template 2 — Critical Systems Register

Critical Systems Register

| Site | System | Why critical | Known weak point | Vendor | Backup available? | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|

Template 3 — Resilience Action Plan

Resilience Action Plan

| Site | Action | Horizon (Now/Next/Long) | Risk reduced | Cost level ($/$$/$$$) | Owner | Due date |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|

Template 4 — Vendor Emergency Contacts

Vendor Emergency Contacts

| Site | Vendor | Service | Contact | Phone | SLA/response expectation | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|

Template 5 — Emergency Response Checklist

Emergency Response Checklist

Emergency Response Checklist (First 2 Hours)

1) Safety
- Confirm no immediate safety hazards
- Secure site access

2) Stabilize
- Identify what failed (power/HVAC/water intrusion)
- Shut down or isolate if needed to prevent damage

3) Communicate
- Notify internal stakeholders
- Notify tenants/customers as needed

4) Mobilize vendors
- Call pre-identified vendors
- Confirm ETA and scope

5) Document
- Photos
- Timeline of events
- Initial damage assessment

6) Next steps
- Temporary fixes
- Recovery plan

Template 6 — Post-Incident Review

Post-Incident Review

Post-Incident Review

Incident:
Site:
Date/time:
Impact:
Root cause:
What worked:
What failed:
Actions to prevent recurrence:
Owners and dates:
Evidence links:

Common pitfalls

  • No single owner during incidents (confusion and delays)
  • Vendor contacts and SLAs not maintained
  • No documentation discipline → claims and learning are harder
  • Focusing on long-term projects while ignoring near-term operational hardening

Change log

v1.0 (2026-01): Latest release