Royal Roads' Climate Risk Assessment
Our climate is changing and impacting the Royal Roads community, both on and off campus where we work, live and study. More frequent and intense heat events, stronger storms and rising sea levels, larger wildfires and wider-spread wildfire smoke are just some of the impacts of climate change we are already experiencing.
The University completed a climate risk assessment with a consulting team from Introba, SHIFT Collaborative and Focal Engineering. This one-year process (January to December 2024) helped us better understand our highest risks and produced a resilience roadmap to help RRU prepare for and thrive under future conditions. The assessment is a critical precursor to future adaptation efforts by the University and is a priority identified in the Climate Action Plan 2025-2030.
By being proactive, we can more effectively safeguard the health and well-being of our students, staff, faculty, visitors and neighbours. We can also take measures to protect and better maintain our built environment, and diverse cultural and natural assets. Planning ahead allows the University to strengthen the resilience of its programs and services so that it can continue to create a safe space for lifelong learning as the climate continues to change.
Outcomes from the risk assessment are summarized in a resilience roadmap to guide next steps for climate adaptation planning. From the roadmap, the University will identify specific, implementable actions to address priority risks and build on strengths to increase its climate preparedness and resilience.
An Inclusive Engagement Process
The assessment considered existing regional data and frameworks and potential climate impacts to the Colwood and Langford campuses, offsite locations and the broader global context. During the process, there were numerous opportunities for community engagement including a survey, workshops and focus group sessions.
Engagement with the Royal Roads community at local, regional and global scales was led through an equity-informed process to create space for the diverse experiences and priorities of the diverse Royal Roads community and meaningfully incorporate them into the risk assessment and the resilience roadmap. Check out the Summary Engagement Report which captures the thoughts, inputs and priorities that emerged during the first phase of the engagement process.
Additionally, the assessment incorporated a low carbon resilience lens to understand how climate risks and resilience opportunities intersect with the University’s goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
