Key Takeaways:
To be effective, resilience cannot be treated as an isolated project or a reactive measure. It must be embedded into long-term strategic planning and decision-making. This requires alignment across multiple areas:
Capital investments should be evaluated not only on immediate cost and return, but also on their contribution to long-term resilience. For example, relocating critical equipment above flood-prone areas, reinforcing building envelopes, or upgrading to climate-adaptive materials, which might involve relocating critical equipment above flood-prone areas or upgrading roofing, envelope and insulation materials designed to better withstand extreme heat, moisture and severe weather events require higher investments but significantly reduce future risk. Consider this fictional scenario:
You are the facility manager for a bio-pharmaceutical company that has its main campus in Austin, Texas, also known as “flash flood alley.” The company is performing ground-breaking research and is developing devices and therapies to meet critical human health needs. Many of the studies performed by company scientists are multi-year, multi-million-dollar efforts. The campus consists of five buildings and primary activities at the campus include medical device manufacturing, research and development, data center and office support functions. There are several labs and cleanrooms throughout the facilities.
Resilience planning starts with a risk assessment. Given your campus’ location in flash flood alley, which has one of the greatest flash flood risks in the United States according to The Lower Colorado River Authority, your organization’s resilience team has identified that flooding risk is the priority and mitigation measures should be considered for this threat.
As a facility manager, we would need to consider where critical equipment is located. In this scenario, the heating and cooling for space conditioning and cooling for the data center is provided by the central plant. The central plant is located on the first floor of one of your buildings. What can we do to protect that critical equipment? When presented with this information in a few tabletop type exercises we have facilitated, the first thoughts are typically how to stop water from getting into the first floor. We often think of tactical response type measures when thinking about a threat. But what if we included long-term planning in our response. What if our mitigation measure is when the central plant equipment is due for replacement, we actually move the central plant to the top floor instead of the first floor? This is a significant investment but is a strategy that eliminates the flooding threat. When you consider the costs of a catastrophic event that wipes out our ability to cool these multi-million-dollar laboratory spaces with important research, it is a better return on investment.
This is where lifecycle cost analysis becomes essential. Facilities that are designed or retrofitted with resilience in mind often deliver lower total cost of ownership by avoiding disruption-related expenses, extending asset life, improving energy performance, and avoiding the higher costs associated with emergency repairs or unplanned downtime.
The Federal Emergency Management Association, based on the National Institute of Building Sciences’ Natural Hazard Mitigation Saves research, determined that paying for flood mitigation before a disaster is consistently cheaper than paying for response, repair, displacement, insurance claims, and rebuilding afterward, with estimated savings ranging from about $2 to $7 for every $1 invested, depending on the project type and methodology.
Energy strategy is central to resilience. Facilities that rely solely on centralized grids are increasingly exposed to outages and price fluctuations. Diversifying energy sources, through renewables, microgrids, and energy storage, enhances reliability and provides operational flexibility. Demand management also plays a role. Smart building technologies can optimize energy use in real time, reducing strain during peak periods and maintaining critical functions during emergencies.
Modernization efforts should prioritize adaptability. This includes upgrading building management systems, integrating sensors and IoT technologies, and enabling remote monitoring and control. These capabilities allow facility teams to respond quickly to changing conditions and maintain performance even under stress. Additionally, modernization should address climate-specific risks. In regions prone to flooding, this might involve waterproofing and drainage improvements. In areas facing extreme heat, enhanced cooling systems and reflective materials can mitigate impact.
At its core, resilience planning is about protecting people and facilities. Facilities are the places where people work, learn, receive care, collaborate and carry out the mission of an organization.
People-centered resilience focuses on ensuring safe, healthy and functional environments under all conditions. This includes:
When building systems fail, the consequences are not only operational or financial — they are human. This is why facility managers play such a central role in resilience.
The core mission of facility management is to create and maintain environments that enable the organization to fulfill its purpose and improve the quality of life of people. That is incredibly powerful and requires facility professionals to take a broader view of sustainability, one that includes the ability to keep people safe, support essential functions, and maintain healthy, functional spaces under stress.
For today’s facility managers, the message is clear: Sustainability and resilience must be integrated into every aspect of planning and operations. This is not simply about meeting environmental targets or regulatory requirements; it is about ensuring that facilities can continue to function, protect occupants, and deliver value in an uncertain future. As climate risks intensify, resilience planning is no longer optional. It is an operational imperative, one that defines the ability of organizations to adapt, endure, and thrive.
Maureen Roskoski is a vice president with FEA with 28 years of experience in strategic planning, resilience planning, and workforce development consulting. She is one of Building Operating Management's Facility Influencers. Maureen is an expert in ISO management systems standards, including the ISO 22301 series on business continuity, the ISO 55000 series on asset management, and the 41000 series on facilities management, and a member U.S. Technical Advisory Group to ISO/TC 267 Facility Management. She supports clients with continuity of operations planning (COOP), organizational assessments, FM technology process improvement, sustainability, and resilience planning.
Mohammed Arafat is a business development specialist based in Washington, D.C., with a professional focus on facilities management, sustainability, and resilience planning. His work centers on strategic communication, client engagement, and developing solutions that support long-term operational performance and adaptability in the built environment.
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Building Resilience Into Facility Strategy
