Climate Adaptation Policy and Planning

GSA recognizes the importance of a holistic Federal Government-wide approach to climate change adaptation planning. As part of its commitment and responsibilities under Executive Order 13514; Federal Leadership in Environmental, Energy, and Economic Performance, GSA actively participates in the Agency Adaptation Planning Working Group (a sub group of the Interagency Climate Change Adaptation Task Force) and its mission to better prepare the Nation to respond and adapt to the impacts of climate change.

Additionally, GSA has issued its own climate change adaptation planning policy statement, which commits the agency to climate adaptation planning through all service areas and staff offices. GSA has a Climate Change Adaptation Action Plan that identifies and prioritizes actions, and establishes a mechanism to evaluate progress so GSA can improve capacity to effectively adapt to current and future changes in the climate. For fiscal year 2013, GSA has prioritized the following five climate change adaptation actions for implementation:

Tune business processes. GSA will integrate baseline due diligence of climate factors into four core business process and guidance documents.
Begin demand planning. To prepare for initial interface with customers, GSA will deliver two additional climate literacy training sessions to the Federal Acquisition Service and Public Buildings Service National Account Manager (NAM) workforce.
Repeat and expand regional pilots. Regions 6 and 11 will repeat and expand the FY12 pilots with actual customers, focusing on mission-critical sites and their supply chains.
Define demand and supply for an integrated service offering. GSA will co-develop with other federal agencies a Request for Information (RFI) for climate adaptation assistance based on climate risk management, applied climate science, risk communication, and coordination of public and multiagency climate risk activities.
Establish an infrastructure for decision support. GSA will continue to reach out to other agencies and industry, translate findings from outreach activities to programs, and develop process-based metrics.

For more details see the actual plan here: http://www.gsa.gov/portal/content/162843

GSA plays a significant role in procuring space, products and services for the Federal government - providing space for over one million Federal employees in over 9,600 buildings. While the scope, severity and pace of future climate change impacts are difficult to predict, it is clear that potential changes are a risk to GSA’s ability to effectively fulfill its mission, operate its facilities and meet policy and program objectives. By integrating climate change adaptation strategies into its risk management of programs and operations, GSA ensures the effective and efficient management of the Federal property investment and ensures rapid responsiveness and support of the mission continuity of customer agencies.