Sustainability

Climate Change Adaptation

Sustainability, ESG & Social Value Consultancy

Climate Change Adaptation

Extreme weather events including record-breaking temperatures and floods are the new normal, with the ever-growing physical hazards of climate change becoming more and more apparent. While it’s easy to feel overwhelmed, now is the time to act on climate adaptation. Whether you manage built assets, organisations or a community, our experts can help you conduct climate risk assessments and implement practical interventions to meet the challenges you face.

Address climate risk effectively

Climate risks, from excess heat to increased flood risk, are no longer theoretical, proving to be real risks to public health and wellbeing, as well as economic performance. RLB can demystify climate adaptation – using frameworks such as ISO 14091 Adaptation to Climate Change for organisations, or ISO 14092 Climate Adaption for cities and communities – and help you address climate risk effectively.

Implement action plans tailor-made for you

Whether you manage organisations or assets, climate adaption planning and strategies can help you take short, medium and long-term actions to address physical, social and financial risks represented by a rapidly changing climate. Alongside robust net zero strategies, we can support you with tailored climate adaptation and action plans that fit your level of risk and ability to adapt.

Understand and report your climate risks

A comprehensive understanding of your climate risks – both physical and transitional, covering regulations, competitive advantage or other non-physical impacts – is a growing demand of stakeholders, investors and regulators. We can support your climate risk assessments through frameworks such as the Taskforce on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD), now absorbed into wider International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB) ESG reporting.

Make better, greener choices

Buildings are at the forefront of climate risks and our solutions to address them. Building design choices have a big impact on our ability to adapt to climate change. Our experts can support BREEAM-compliant or ESG-aligned real estate climate risk assessments, and action recommendations for new builds, refurbishments and complete asset portfolios.

Value & Impact

How we’ve helped others meet their challenges

UNITED KINGDOM

NET ZERO RETAIL FIT-OUT

Guiding NatWest towards net zero


We developed a strategic roadmap for achieving net zero carbon across the retail estate of NatWest, one of the UK’s biggest banks. Our approach, which embedded sustainability into NatWest’s branch refurbishment programme, has already delivered significant carbon reductions, setting a new standard for sustainability in the retail banking sector.

“The RLB sustainability team showed us what holistic good practice looks like when it came to a roadmap towards target net zero. Their knowledge of sustainability within the built environment is very strong, and their innovative approaches have set the bar for our sustainable fit-out practices going forward.”

Andrew Taylor

Design Manager, Retail Design, People and Transformation, NatWest Group

SUSTAINABILITY

INSIGHTS & PERSPECTIVES

  • Capability

    Circular Economy in Construction: A Strategic Pathway…

    In today’s construction industry, clients are navigating a complex landscape of rising costs, ...

  • Capability

    Understanding the EU Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive 

    With new ESG regulations and voluntary reporting standards developing all the time, it can be ...

  • Capability

    The UK Net Zero Building Standard: A…

    In our daily conversations with clients, one question keeps coming up: how can we effectively ...

  • RLB collaborates on 189 low-energy affordable homes…

    The RLB team has recently commenced work with Peabody and Higgins Partnerships, on a development ...

  • RLB Moves Up in Building’s Top 150…

    RLB Moves Up in Building’s Top 150 Consultants Ranking RLB is excited to share our strong ...

  • Value of Sustainability in the Built Environment report

    Building, partnering with RLB UK, has published its Building the Future ‘The Value of ...

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Explore more of our services and expertise

FURTHER INFORMATION

Heather Evans
Heather Evans

Partner – National Head of Sustainability