New survey data from the Association for Project Management (APM) suggests that the recent UK heatwaves had a widespread impact on project delivery, with 99% of construction project professionals saying their main project was affected and 62% saying “significantly”.
Among those affected, 28% reported schedule delays causing missed deadlines, 26% reported increased health and safety measures, and 25% said projects had to be postponed or paused.
APM warned that climate change is already disrupting delivery, and projects not designed for more frequent extreme weather face a growing risk of delay, cost escalation or failure.
Censuswide conducted the survey of 1,008 UK-based project professionals in a range of sectors including construction, education, energy, healthcare and more.
Construction more pessimistic
Overall, 77% of project professionals said the heatwave had made them more confident their organisation’s future projects will be resilient to extreme weather events, with 18% saying they were now less confident.
Construction project professionals were markedly more pessimistic: only 18% said they were confident in their organisation’s future projects, with 24% saying they were less confident.
“The message for organisations is that climate change is now a delivery risk and a cost risk, not a distant environmental issue,” said Dr Hugo Minney, network lead of APM’s Sustainability Interest Network.
“Project leaders can mitigate against these risks in three practical ways: carry out climate-specific risk assessments at the start of every project; build informed flexibility into schedules, contracts, budgets and supply chains; and protect the workforce through robust heat, safety and wellbeing plans.
“This is not simply about responding better when disruption occurs. It is about designing projects that can continue to deliver in the conditions they are likely to face. Organisations that fail to take this seriously may find that extreme weather exposes weaknesses in planning, procurement and governance, with consequences for cost, confidence and completion.”
