In the coming decades, climate change will cause more frequent and widespread flooding, scarcity of water resources, and increased heat risk. Many schools face significant challenges in taking action to protect themselves due to constrained financial resources, competing priorities, ageing buildings, and skills barriers. How can schools adapt to safeguard the learning and wellbeing of students and staff?

In 2020, the Greater London Authority (GLA) commissioned Arup to develop guidance for London schools on the measures they can take to adapt to climate change. We researched and engaged with the London school and early years community, developing an adaptation planning approach, which included physical changes, operational and behavioural measures and funding opportunities. Read the final guidance here.

In 2023, we took this one step further and developed tailored climate action plans (CAPs) for 60 schools as part of the GLA’s Climate Resilient Schools (CRS) programme. Within our role, we identified the most significant climate change impacts and risks facing each school – covering overheating, flooding and water scarcity. Based on this understanding, we then recommended feasible climate change adaptation and resilience measures to address them.

The interventions outlined in the CAPs help to protect schools from the impacts of climate change, while supporting the creation of a thriving, resilient and connected school community.

A tailored approach to assessing climate risk

In 2020, our main objective was to produce guidance and recommendations for schools that would make the most difference in their unique circumstances, while retaining general applicability for all London schools. Our approach was to provide a starting point for schools when undertaking a climate risk assessment to help them understand their particular vulnerabilities and identify the most appropriate options to address them.

Our multidisciplinary team identified three school building typologies, and indicated the cost, space requirements, impact and wider benefits for each adaptation measure, helping schools to identify the most suitable options for their site.

Climate action plans

In 2023, we progressed the 2020 guidance by developing individual CAPs for schools across London. Within just six months, we developed CAPs for 60 schools.

The plans included a range of physical climate adaptation and resilience measures, and behavioural and operational measures, to reduce vulnerability and exposure to climate change impacts and risks.

Every CAP comprised a selection of up to 12 measures, encompassing both ‘quick win’ solutions and longer-term strategies. Additionally, we provided detailed information on the costs and maintenance requirements associated with each measure, ensuring that the schools can sustain their resilience autonomously in the future.

Alongside the CAPs we created a supporting compendium of climate change adaptation and resilience measures, containing the full range of 41 physical adaptation and resilience measures recommended in the CAPs, which is readily available for each school to access.

Download the compendium here 

Diagram of adaptation and resilience measures in schools

The compendium of climate change adaptation and resilience measures is made up of five categories of physical measures

Diagram of adaptation and resilience measures in schools

Each category contains individual measures, developed from existing good practice technical guidance and findings from the site surveys

A data-driven approach

Data collection was vital in the development of the plans. To ensure consistency and efficiency, we created a bespoke version of the Esri ArcGIS Field Maps app to collect geospatial data during site surveys of all schools. The app allowed our team of surveyors to easily highlight key areas of interest, such as 'hot spots' (areas of high temperatures or overheating), 'wet spots' (areas with flooding or drainage issues), and 'dry spots' (areas with visible impacts of water scarcity), which informed our recommended measures for each school.

The team of surveyors comprised early career engineers, landscape architects, environmental consultants and planners. Based on their findings, our Technical Advisory Group, comprising senior experts in climate change and sustainability, water, building engineering, landscape design, masterplanning and building physics, identified the appropriate climate change adaptation and resilience measures.

Strengthening climate resilience in the built environment

Schools in London can utilise the content of the CAPs and the compendium immediately, while schools in other regions of England, and other nations of the UK, may need to evaluate and adjust them to suit their specific circumstances.

With ambitions for every school in England to have a CAP by 2025, our work could also serve as a model for the nationwide implementation of climate change adaptation and resilience measures.

The approach we have developed on this project – encompassing detailed analysis and evaluation of building and landscape typologies, effective stakeholder engagement, a focus on passive design and nature-based solutions, and innovative data collection and visualisation – can also be transferred to deliver practical climate change adaptation and resilience plans for other public sector buildings and landscapes. For example, for hospitals and health centres, and for college and university campuses.