Manufacturing and operations rely on physical facilities, machinery, and supporting infrastructure to function efficiently and safely. Climate and nature risks can damage buildings and critical equipment, disrupt production lines, and shorten asset lifespans.
More frequent extreme events can also increase maintenance costs, insurance premiums, and downtime, while gradual changes may reduce equipment efficiency or require costly retrofits. These impacts can lead to lost production capacity, higher capital expenditure, and increased operational risk.
Vulnerabilities
What are the risks to facilities & assets?
The climate and nature pressures that can make facilities & assets less reliable.
A range of climate and nature-related hazards, including flooding, extreme heat, storms, wildfires and land degradation expose manufacturing facilities and assets. Acute events can cause immediate damage to buildings, machinery, and site infrastructure, while chronic changes such as rising temperatures or shifting precipitation patterns can degrade asset performance over time.
These hazards increase the likelihood of unplanned outages, safety incidents, and costly repairs, undermining the reliability of operations.
What are the exposure risks of facilities & assets?
How exposed facilities & assets are to climate and nature risks.
Sites located in floodplains, coastal zones, heat-prone regions, or areas experiencing ecosystem degradation are more exposed to climate and nature risks. In addition, the degree of protection provided by infrastructure design and location such as drainage systems, cooling capacity, or natural buffers like wetlands affects how severely hazards are experienced.
High exposure increases the probability that climate events will disrupt operations or damage critical assets.
How sensitive are facilities & assets to disruption?
How much businesses depend on reliable facilities & assets.
Facilities and assets vary in how sensitive they are to disruption depending on their condition, design standards and operational thresholds. Older infrastructure, highly specialised equipment and processes requiring tightly controlled environmental conditions are often more vulnerable to temperature extremes, water stress or humidity changes. Limited redundancy, poor maintenance, or dependence on single-site production can further increase sensitivity.
Higher sensitivity means even moderate climate impacts can lead to significant operational disruption or efficiency losses.
What are the wider knock-on effects of disruption to facilities & assets?
How climate and nature risks to facilities & assets can create wider knock-on effects for operations, suppliers, and communities.
