Emerging Standards, Policies & Gaps

Extreme heat is increasingly shaping how buildings are planned, operated and regulated. Research highlights both growing health and productivity risks and a rapidly evolving, but still fragmented, mix of standards, building codes and Heat‑Health Action Plans that FMs must navigate.

Building codes, standards and overheating criteria

Many countries now integrate thermal comfort and overheating criteria into national building codes and standards, but approaches and metrics vary widely.33,34

Overheating regulations still often rely on simple indoor air temperature thresholds and often neglect materials, humidity, air movement, clothing and metabolic rate, limiting their ability to reflect real heat stress.33,34

Regulations focused on energy efficiency (e.g., strong insulation) can increase overheating risk in a warming climate if not accompanied by overheating requirements34,35 and evidence on thermal resilience.23 Additionally, insulation can also be a source of VOCs, highlighting that energy efficiency and health have some trade-offs in the built environment.

Some guidance calls for region‑specific, climate‑adaptive overheating standards and thermal indices that include environmental and physiological factors.33,36,37

Occupational heat safety standards and workplace policy

Practice often references OSHA General Duty Clause, ACGIH Threshold Limit Values, ISO standards, NIOSH criteria documents38 and national guides such as Safe Work Australia’s “Guide for Working in Heat.”36,39–42

Case studies in construction show organizational policies frequently under implement national guidance: gaps include worker consultation, formal heat risk assessment, training and systematic review of incidents.36,39,40,43,44

Reviews call for stronger regulatory standards for indoor and outdoor workers, mandatory reporting of heat‑related illness, and integration of Wet Bulb Globe Temperature (WBGT)‑based work–rest limits into safety regulations.40–42,44 Heat‑Health Action Plans and Urban Planning Tools:

Policy/Tool Type	Role for Facilities/Built Environment	Sources
Heat‑Health Action Plans (HHAPs)	Set thresholds, alerts, coordination; often weakly linked to building/urban codes	27,45,46
City Heat Action Plans (India)	Emphasize emergency and outreach; underuse heat‑resilient building codes and blue‑green infrastructure	46,47
Local planning & codes	Use land‑use, vegetation rules and building codes to mitigate extreme heat, but with barriers in resources and political will	22,23, 47,48

Policy directions for thermal resilience

Research stresses embedding thermal resilience and passive survivability (i.e., safe indoor conditions during heatwaves and outages) into building codes and rating systems (e.g., LEED green building program credits, proposals for U.S. federal climate-resilience legislation).23,26,29

National and local frameworks are urged to better connect urban planning, building regulation, occupational safety and public health into integrated heat-resilience strategies.23,27,45,48

Standards summary

Existing voluntary and nonvoluntary standards and policies influencing facilities management under extreme heat include energy and insulation codes, emerging overheating criteria, occupational heat‑safety standards and heat‑health or city heat action plans. However, many regulations still under specify overheating and worker protection, focus narrowly on energy or are weakly enforced. Additionally, existing building material certifications do not address the potential effects of increased temperature and humidity on building materials. Research consistently calls for climate‑adaptive, region‑specific overheating standards, stronger occupational heat rules, and integration of thermal resilience targets into building, planning and emergency policy so facilities can maintain safe conditions in a hotter world.