Framework for Climate Adaptive Buildings

Climate risks are rising.
Is your building ready?

1 in 5 Belgian buildings risks overheating - and many are also exposed to flooding and drought.

Discover how resilient your building is and what you can do today.

Download the Climate Adaptive Building tool Check climate risks in your area

Why climate adaptation can’t wait

1 in 5 buildings at risk of overheating within 10–15 years

Up to 90% of buildings could overheat by mid-century

Heat causes hundreds of deaths each year

Heavy rainfall events are becoming more intense and more frequent

Flood damage leads to high repair costs, insurance risks, and disruption

12,6% of Flanders is already in flood-prone areas

Longer dry periods are putting pressure on water resources

Buildings and urban areas are often not designed for water retention or reuse

Drought can lead to structural issues, subsidence, and reduced resilience of green spaces

Most buildings in Belgium were not designed for today’s climate. Without action, overheating will become the norm - with serious impacts on comfort, health, and energy use.

The Climate Adaptive Building Tool

The Belgian Green Building Council developed the Climate Adaptive Buildings Tool to help assess how well buildings can cope with climate risks — today and in the future.

Built on a robust framework

To respond to the growing need for objective and quantifiable climate risk analysis, BGBC developed the Framework for Climate Adaptive Buildings. This framework provides a structured and comparable methodology to evaluate how buildings perform under climate stress, including heat, flooding and drought.

Designed to be used by:

Designers and engineers
Investors and asset managers
Insurers
Public authorities

Developed for the Belgian context

The methodology builds on the model developed by the Dutch Green Building Council (DGBC), and has been adapted to the Belgian regulatory and climate context.

What this Building tool delivers

Using this framework, the tool:

Provides a clear and consistent risk assessment
Identifies where a building is vulnerable
Offers a prioritised list of concrete improvement actions

Practical and actionable

Improving climate resilience doesn’t have to be complex or expensive. Typical solutions include:

Solar shading or shutters
Light-coloured façades
Better insulation and ventilation
Green roofs and vegetation

Download the Climate Adaptive Building Tool

Climate risks do not occur in isolation. Building resilience requires assessing multiple hazards together.

Check the climate risks in your neighbourhood

Want to understand your exposure to climate risks? Public authorities provide interactive maps to help you explore your environment.
These maps help you understand your surroundings. The BGBC tool helps professionals navigate in these differnt maps and further explore solutions.

Heat stress

Extreme temperature events can have a significant impact on buildings. In urban areas, these effects are amplified by the urban heat island effect and the heat emitted by air conditioning systems.