Climate Hazard & Property Resilience Assessment

Property resilience is the ability of a facility to adapt to and withstand disturbances while retaining the same function and operation. Resilience includes the capacity of an asset to adapt, withstand, and quickly recover from various external forces, including extreme weather events and global climate risks.

Physical and Transition Risks

Partner Energy helps clients evaluate both their physical and transition climate risks. Physical climate risks include acute physical risks, which are due to weather events that may be destructive to properties, such as wildfire, severe storms, and flooding, as well as chronic physical risks such as heat and water stress that may impact the properties over time.

Transition climate risks are due to government regulations and disclosure rules, including city building efficiency regulations such as LA EBEWE and NYC’s Local Law 97, and carbon emissions regulations such as SEC’s Climate Risks Disclosure Rules and California’s Climate Disclosure Bills. Companies must comply with these regulations or face fines.

Climate Hazard Assessment Methodology

Resilience assessments begin with our expert team of building scientists, a strong data foundation, and robust resources for climate risks. Partner Energy works with best-in-class climate hazard data firms, including Moody’s and Munich RE to identify and analyze potential regional climate risks. Other climate data firms are available at the request of clients.

Property Specific Risk Assessment Methodology

We go beyond identifying regional climate hazards to deliver property-specific risk assessments and recommendations that help clients mitigate risks from climate change. Site assessors observe site operations, occupancy, energy and water efficiency, and structural resiliency onsite to provide valuable data for our team of engineers, architects, building scientists, and real estate experts to analyze risks at the asset level. The team of building scientists assess the resiliency of the property today and recommend property resilience measures (PRM) for reducing property damage and downtime as a result of climate hazards.

We also consider the specific client’s risk tolerance and investment objective to make targeted recommendations based on factors such as the asset hold period. The result of the assessment is an inventory of potential risks, a list of property-specific recommendations for risk mitigation measures, as well as estimated implementation cost.

Our Assessments

Before a full Property Resilience Assessment is ordered, Partner Energy provides a Transaction Screening as the first step. This includes a review of Moody’s or Munich RE climate hazards report, regional and local climate hazards desktop research, and identification of high and extremely high acute physical risks that may impact the property. Only when the climate risks are deemed high or extremely high is a full Property Resilience Assessment ordered.

Partner Energy provides three levels of Property Resiliency Assessments that can be customized according to client needs. See the table below for details on each.

Climate hazards are assessed on a regional and site-specific level and include the following:

• Floods
• Hurricanes & Typhoons
• Sea Level Rise
• Wildfire
• Extreme Cold

Optional:

• Earthquakes – Seismic
• Heat Stress
• Water Stress

Construction, Occupancy, Protection, Exposure (COPE) Assessment

Partner Energy provides separate COPE Assessments that insurance agencies can utilize to quantify and estimate loss based on property data. Partner Energy’s evaluations provide insight into property features specific to insurance underwriting and the evaluation of the construction, occupancy, risk mitigation features, and exposure to risks (climatic or man-made).

Partner Energy provides COPE Assessments for new construction and existing buildings:

• New construction design review: assessment of building design resilience, identification of enhancement opportunities that can help reduce risks and improve insurability
• Existing property review: assessment of risks of potential damages, resilience enhancement opportunities, with short and long-term recommendations

Ask about our COPE Assessments and how they may impact your properties’ insurance rates.

Contact Partner Energy

Partner Energy’s deep knowledge of building science, real estate, and sustainability allow us to deliver concrete and actionable resiliency recommendations that provide improvements or upgrades to the asset. We also develop custom resiliency assessment protocols to meet the individual needs of clients.

Our Climate Hazard and Property Resilience Assessments can be ordered as a standalone service or as an add-on to Property/Facility Condition Assessments, Energy and Water Audit, or Environmental Site Assessment.