Unlocking Property Resilience with ASTM E3429: A Sustainability Consultant's Perspective

By Erik Eichenlaub, CEM, WELL AP, LEED GA | Climate Services Director, Nova Group, GBC

At Nova Group, GBC (Nova), a Certified B Corp, we understand how the landscape of property risk is changing. Climate change is driving more frequent and severe natural hazards—from wildfires and floods to heatwaves and earthquakes—posing serious challenges for properties worldwide. Risk goes beyond occupant safety, affecting operational continuity, asset value, and alignment with environmental and social goals. As sustainability consultants, we harness the framework laid out within the ASTM E3429-24 Standard Guide for Property Resilience Assessments (PRAs) to deliver tailored property resiliency solutions for a wide array of clients, including real estate investors, lenders, insurers, facility managers, developers, and organizations prioritizing mitigating climate risk. Let’s dive into what ASTM E3429–24 offers and why Nova is your ideal partner for building resilient properties.

What is ASTM E3429-24, and Why Does It Matter to You?

Published in October 2024 by ASTM International, the ASTM E3429–24 Standard Guide for Property Resilience Assessments outlines a three-stage process for assessing physical risk and enhancing property resilience against natural hazards. This guide equips consultants like us with an actionable framework to support stakeholders like yourselves—whether the purpose is managing lending risks, underwriting insurance, performing commercial real estate due diligence, capital planning, or targeting ESG and sustainability goals and reporting.

Here’s how we apply its three stages:

Stage 1: Hazard Identification

We pinpoint the natural hazards threatening your property—think coastal flooding, extreme temperatures, or wildfires—using advanced climate modeling, mapping tools, and local expertise. This is vital for lenders assessing risk exposure or developers evaluating a site’s future viability.

Stage 2: Risk and Capacity Evaluation

We dive deeper, evaluating how these hazards could affect your property’s safety, damage potential, and recovery timelines while considering dependencies like social and community resilience. For underwriters, this means quantifying risk; for ESG-focused clients, it’s about understanding vulnerabilities that could derail sustainability goals.

Stage 3: Resilience Solutions

We propose tailored measures—flood barriers, seismic retrofits, rainwater capture systems, etc.—complete with cost estimation for implementation. These solutions support capital planning, insurance decisions, and resilience disclosures for investors or regulators.

Why Partner with Nova Group, GBC?

At Nova, we don’t just implement the ASTM E3429-24 guide into our PRAs—we elevate it with our sustainability expertise, customizing it to your needs.

Here’s what sets us apart:

• Lenders and Underwriters: Mitigating risk is your priority. Our PRAs align with financial due diligence, offering detailed hazard and resilience assessments, helping you evaluate loan viability or set insurance premiums with confidence.

  
  

• Commercial Real Estate Due Diligence: Whether you’re an investor or operator, our PRAs integrate seamlessly with ASTM standards like E1527 (Environmental Site Assessments) and E2018 (Property Condition Assessments). We identify risks that could affect property value or tenant retention, giving you a competitive edge in negotiations or portfolio optimization.

  
  

• ESG and Sustainability Goals: Committed to ESG frameworks like GRI, TCFD, or GRESB, or navigating mandates like California’s SB 261? Our PRAs provide data-driven insights into physical climate risks and resilience strategies, ensuring transparent reporting under frameworks and climate risk disclosure mandates, while strengthening portfolio performance.

  
  

• Building "Green" Certifications: Pursuing Green Globes, LEED, or BREEAM certification? Resilience is a key pillar of sustainable design. Our assessments align your property with these standards by recommending measures—like energy-efficient insulation or wildfire-resistant landscaping—that enhance both resilience and environmental performance.

  
  

• Minimizing Operational Downtime: Natural hazards can disrupt operations, costing time and money. Our PRAs assess potential impacts—like flood-induced closures or heatwave-related system failures—and recommend resilience measures to reduce downtime, keeping your properties functional and profitable even after a hazard event.

  
  

• Broad Expertise: Our engineers, architects, and climate risk specialists deliver robust, reliable PRAs backed by years of physical climate risk mitigation experience.

  
  

• Customized Flexibility: Whether it’s a quick Stage 1 portfolio screen or a full Stage 3 retrofit plan, we adapt to your timeline and goals with full transparency.

  
  

• Holistic Perspective: We look beyond the property, factoring in community and infrastructure resilience—key for assessing long-term livability or insurability.

A Strategic Edge in a Changing World

Natural hazards are no longer rare events—they’re a business reality. The ASTM E3429-24 guide provides us with a roadmap to navigate this landscape, and at Nova, we’re your trusted partner to turn that roadmap into results. From financial decisions to sustainability ambitions, our PRAs empower you with the insights and resilience strategies to navigate today’s challenges and tomorrow’s opportunities.

Contact us today for further discussion or for a sample PRA report. At Nova, we believe in “Using Business as a Force for Good.”

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🪪 Erik Eichenlaub, CEM, WELL AP, LEED GA | Climate Services Director

erik.eichenlaub@novagroupgbc.com | (610) 283-1632

👉 Learn more about our Climate Risk & Resiliency Services: Climate Risk & Resiliency | Nova Group, GBC