Tip sheet: Start weaving climate adaptation into your municipality’s everyday activities

This tip sheet will help you answer:

• How do we connect the climate adaptation work we have done to our day-to-day systems, processes and plans?  
• How can we navigate the operational and cultural changes that can come with starting climate adaptation work? 

Getting started 

Review the plans and processes you already have, and identify entry points for your climate adaptation plan.

You do not have to start from scratch. Before creating anything new, identify where actions in your climate adaptation plan can naturally fit into the work your municipality is already doing. This approach helps reduce duplication and the amount of resources required to make progress on climate adaptation.

How can we start integrating our climate adaptation plan into our day-to-day operations without adding extra burden on staff or resources?

To help you get started, here are some examples of how adaptation actions can be connected to existing municipal plans, systems and processes.

Asset management plans

• Consider how climate risks like flooding or heat stress may affect critical infrastructure over time.
• Use climate risk information (e.g., increased freeze-thaw cycles, heavy rainfall, drought) to adjust lifecycle costing, maintenance schedules and infrastructure renewal priorities.
• Identify assets most vulnerable to climate impacts, and include projects to mitigate climate impacts in capital plans (e.g., relocate electrical controls of a pump station in a flood-prone area, retrofit buildings with improved insulation and heat pumps for efficient cooling).

Financial planning and budgeting

• Include adaptation actions in your long-term financial plan and capital budget forecasts. 

Explore FCM’s Long-term financial planning for sustainable service delivery for ways to embed climate resilience into long-term financial planning.

• Factor in the cost of inaction when assessing the value of adaptation measures (e.g., compare the cost of regular maintenance to prevent road washouts with the cost of emergency repairs). 

Explore ICLEI’s Cost of Doing Nothing: A toolbox for building a local business case for adaptation to get additional information on understanding the cost of inaction.

• Ensure your procurement rules don’t prevent you from paying more now to save money later.
• Consider applying for adaptation-related grants and funding opportunities. 

Explore FCM’s Funding opportunities page for a list of the Green Municipal Fund’s (GMF)’s funding programs.

Public works and operations

• Adjust staff’s operational schedules based on projected climate impacts (e.g., increase in the frequency of storm-drain clearing before heavy rain seasons).
• Use seasonal outlooks or weather-trend data to inform planning for snow removal, tree maintenance and water conservation efforts.
• Incorporate heat-, drought- and flood-resilient design into operations and infrastructure upgrades (e.g., planning for tree watering, upsizing culverts to future rainfall conditions). 

Explore GMF’s Tools: Operations and maintenance for climate resilience for ways to help your municipality maintain services in a changing climate.

Emergency planning

• Integrate understanding of current and future climate risks (e.g., wildfire, extreme heat or flooding) into your emergency management plan.
• Coordinate with public health and social services to ensure emergency plans account for vulnerable populations (e.g., cooling centres for seniors).

Public communications and engagement

• Include climate risk information in seasonal public communications (e.g., safety tips for wildfire season, reminders to prepare for extreme heat, suggestions to conserve water during drought periods).
• Use climate adaptation progress updates to build transparency and public trust.
• Share stories of local successes to show residents how climate resilience is being built in their community (e.g., videos, infographics, newsletter spotlights). 

Read Tip sheet: Start putting your climate adaptation plan into action for more information on climate adaptation storytelling.

Land use planning

• Use climate risk information to identify areas that are not suitable for new development due to climate hazards like flooding, wildfire or coastal erosion.
• Update zoning bylaws and land development policies to avoid growth and development in high-risk areas (e.g., wildland-urban interface, coastline) and to preserve natural spaces that can help mitigate the impacts of climate changes (e.g., urban forests that offer relief from extreme heat).

Empower staff to act on climate adaptation through their existing responsibilities.

Integrating climate adaptation plans across an organization is not only a technical task, it can also require a change in corporate culture, including evolving how decisions are made and how services are delivered. These changes can feel big, and it can be hard to maintain momentum as change occurs. Creating change is easier when staff are empowered with an understanding of why climate adaptation matters, how it matters to their role and what they can do to help integrate climate adaptation actions.

How can we build internal capacity and support staff through the change required to integrate our climate adaptation plan into our operations?

Here are some tips to help you get started.

Build an understanding of why climate adaptation matters.

Help staff connect climate risks to the services and assets they manage. For example, encourage staff to reflect on role-relevant questions.

For planners:

• How might increased flood risk affect our development decisions or land use planning?

• Are there areas in our community that might become less suitable for development if wildfires become more common?

• Who in our community may not have access to the financial resources or networks to recover from the impacts of a climate hazard?

For public works and operations staff:

• How would more extreme heat days affect our outdoor work or road maintenance schedules?

• How might increased freeze-thaw cycles impact road surfaces or sidewalks we maintain?

• What would heavier rainfall mean for the way we inspect storm drains or culverts?

• How could more frequent power outages or heat waves affect public building safety and comfort?

• Are the trees we are planting today likely to thrive 20 years from now?

For emergency services or emergency planning staff:

• Are our current emergency plans designed for climate hazards that may become more frequent such as extreme heat, wildfires, flooding or drought?

• What impact do extreme weather events have on volunteer fire departments or local shelters?

For communications staff:

• What forms of communication would our internal and external communities find valuable for staying informed about the work we’re doing to make infrastructure and services more resilient to changing climate conditions?

• How might our communication channels need to evolve to reach people during emergencies such as wildfires or flooding?

Some of this work may have been done already as part of your climate risk assessment and adaptation planning. Explore Tips for building the foundation for municipal climate adaptation for more guidance on how to support staff to build this understanding.

Connect your climate adaptation plan to staff roles.

Once staff are equipped to understand the importance of climate adaptation, work with them to identify ways they can integrate climate adaptation actions into their roles. For example:  

For administrators:

• Embed climate risk and resilience into relevant council reports.

• Engage neighbouring jurisdictions in discussions about climate risk and resilience, identifying shared interests and potential opportunities for collaboration.

For finance staff:

• Include climate risk and adaptation costs in long-term capital planning and asset management.

• Train finance staff to identify funding opportunities that support resilience.

• Review procurement processes and policy to identify opportunities to incorporate climate resilience, such as identifying project types that should include climate resilience requirements in submissions.

For public works and operations staff:  

• Make adjustments to maintenance schedules, emergency response procedures and inspection routines based on observed and projected climate impacts (e.g., checking storm drains more frequently during high-risk seasons).

• Plan outdoor programs with extreme heat in mind.

For communications staff:

• Build climate messaging into regular communications to residents.

• Develop an emergency communications plan.

• Create communication checklists and templates for communicating in extreme weather events.

For planners:

• Use climate risk information to shape land use decisions, zoning bylaws and official community plans. Assess whether proposed developments are climate-resilient and located in safe, low-risk areas.

For engineers:

• Integrate climate projections (e.g., rainfall intensity, temperature extremes) into infrastructure design and lifecycle assessments.

• Review your bylaws, design standards and contract templates to identify where you can integrate climate projections or known climate risks. Update these as necessary. 

Browsing the following resources may help staff brainstorm connections between climate adaptation actions and their roles:

• GMF’s Talking it through: Guide for local government staff on climate adaptation
• GMF’s Guide: Municipal climate change staff
• Climate Caucus’s Resources
• Project Drawdown’s Climate Solutions at Work  

Encourage staff to identify opportunities

Staff often know where there is room to improve processes or make smarter decisions. Create opportunities for staff to suggest how and where climate adaptation could be integrated into their work. This can be done through, for example:

• one-on-one conversations that occur once a year with different staff
• a standing meeting or working group with staff representatives from different departments to share ideas and track progress
• hosting short “climate huddles” or lunch-and-learns to share ideas 

Next steps

Integrating your climate adaptation plan into your municipality’s systems, processes and plans is a core part of successful implementation. For more guidance on implementing your climate adaptation plan, read Tip sheet: Start putting your climate adaptation plan into action. Your integration approach should also consider how you will monitor, report on and learn from your efforts. Tip sheet: Start tracking and evaluating your climate adaptation efforts offers tips for getting started.

Explore the Climate-Ready Communities Assessment Tool for additional insight and support in implementing your climate risk assessment and adaptation plan. You can use the tool to evaluate your existing climate adaptation efforts, pinpoint areas for improvement and chart a clear plan for strengthening your community’s adaptation efforts.