By Dan Hounsell, Senior Editor

Facilities managers in hospitals and other medical buildings continue to confront the entire gamut of disasters and emergencies, from wildfires to hurricanes, and the challenges are likely to increase as the effects of climate change intensify.

Now, the U.S. Department of Energy’s Better Buildings program offers a range of resources designed to help managers and their teams prepare for the worst. The resources are intended to help organizations across different sectors take steps to build resilience and increase their ability to bounce back from natural disasters and other stressors. The resources can be used to minimize vulnerabilities to climate-related impacts through resilience planning, implementing new energy technologies, and decreasing energy demand in facilities.

The resources are arranged to help managers find solutions that are most relevant to their organizations’ goals. Among the topics:

• develop strategies to reduce natural disaster risk
• improve community resilience
• design resilient buildings
• work with utilities on demand response
• finance resilience projects.