Climate-Related Risk Playbook for Building Owners – Industrial Buildings

REALPAC

REALPAC is pleased to release the Climate-Related Risk Playbook for Building Owners – Industrial Buildings, developed in collaboration with REALPAC members, the Canada Green Building Council, and JLL Canada, with support from Natural Resources Canada. Designed to offer practical guidance, this playbook helps asset and investment managers navigate both physical and transition climate risks.

Canada’s industrial real estate sector is being shaped by strong logistics and distribution demand, making climate-related risk management increasingly important for owners and investors. To remain competitive, industrial assets must improve energy performance, reduce emissions, and strengthen resilience to extreme weather, while addressing operational complexity driven by varied building uses, tenant-controlled processes, and limited owner control over energy consumption. Effective decarbonization, therefore, requires coordinated capital planning, targeted base-building upgrades, electrification where feasible, and stronger data sharing and alignment with tenants to protect long-term asset value.

This playbook is structured around three key areas:

Introduction
Financials
Technology & Operations

In addition to the Industrial playbook, REALPAC has also released playbooks for the Apartment, Office, and Retail sectors. The four playbooks examine regulations, portfolio- and asset-level decision-making, and financial implications. They also provide guidance on carbon transition planning, emissions reduction prioritization, and physical climate risk assessment and planning, including resilience considerations related to extreme weather events.

Together, the playbooks support more informed, data-driven decision-making as the sector advances toward a lower-carbon, more climate-resilient future.