OC4A Mainstream adaptation into your organisation’s plans, policies and procedures

You can reduce reliance on stand-alone adaptation actions (often seen as a burden) by mainstreaming into your organisation’s functions. Prioritise those that will deliver most impact, but also embed adaptation considerations within review/update cycles for a wide range of plans, policies and procedures.

Sub tasks:

Link adaptation work to your organisational outcomes
- Demonstrate the importance of adaptation to the overall organisation by showing how existing adaptation work contributes to achieving organisational objectives.
- Demonstrate how planned adaptation work will support progress towards organisational outcomes; provide evidence of social, economic and environmental benefits.
- Provide guidance to the organisation’s leadership on optimal ways to incorporate climate change adaptation considerations into critical decision-making.
Consider how internal policies or legislation may further enable adaptation.
- Keep the organisational drivers template created in Task OC1A up to date by revisiting it periodically.
- Take advantage of opportunities that arise from policy or legislation drivers, such as new regulations, mandates or targets to incorporate adaptation.
- Integrate climate change adaptation into pre-existing established programs, policies or strategies.
- Be aware of internal timescales and identify opportunities to incorporate adaptation into the creation of new or revision of existing policies.
- Be proactive in driving policy innovations for adaptation which address objectives and help tackle institutional inertia
Take action to mainstream adaptation.
- Embed climate risks, adaptation actions or relevant climate resilient KPIs in your corporate strategy and/or performance framework.
- Ensure that business case development and procurement processes for products, services and projects take account of climate risks. Climate impacts should be considered early on in business case development and adaptation actions should be designed and costed in at an early stage. A requirement for climate resilience should be included in relevant supplier contracts.
- Engage widely across your organisation and with external stakeholders including suppliers, community planning partners and the public on the topic of and importance of adaptation.
- Embed adaptation across the organisation through cross-departmental working groups, adaptation champion’s networks or allocating departmental, team or individual climate change responsibilities or objectives.
- Involve senior and operational staff so that your organisation can promote climate adaptation within capital investment, routine maintenance and service planning. It should be clear where accountability for climate change lies and individuals and groups have defined responsibilities.
Ensure adaptation is a regular and incorporated part of working across your organisation.
- This may not be a quick process, however investing time and effort to integrate adaptation into ways of working will have long term benefits when adaptation is seen as business as usual. Be patient and flexible – allowing multiple iterations and time to embed.

Resources:

Read case study on including adaptation in capital maintenance programmes with Scottish Water

Read case study on Scottish Canals here

See Scotland Natural Heritage's Corporate Plan here which mainstreams adaptation across the organisation's plans, policies and procedures

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