Climate change represents an increasingly urgent challenge for universities, which manage infrastructures, communities, and environmental assets exposed to heatwaves, flooding, droughts, and hurricanes. These phenomena are already affecting life on campuses and will further influence the safety, quality of spaces, and well-being of academic communities in the future.

The commitment of the academic world and our University
Universities worldwide are adopting Adaptation Plans to protect infrastructures (implementing interventions aimed at redeveloping open spaces, retrofitting buildings, etc.) while also offering specialized training courses to develop new skills.

The Climate Change Adaptation Plan (CCAP) of Politecnico di Milano (presented in the January 2026 sessions of the Academic Senate and the Board of Directors) is the University’s first document dedicated to climate resilience. It forms part of the University’s sustainability strategy, aligned with the 2023–2025 Strategic Plan and the Sustainability Strategic Plan. It therefore integrates the actions set out in the CO₂ Emissions Mitigation Plan to counteract the effects of climate change: while mitigation addresses the causes of climate change, adaptation focuses on its impacts, expected in the coming decades, but also to those already underway.

The Climate Change Adaptation Plan is based on three strategic objectives:

• Building continuous and updated knowledge of the climate risks affecting people, buildings, infrastructures, and ecosystems on campus;
• Strengthening the resilience of the university community and campus spaces through management solutions, physical interventions, and behavioral changes;
• Promoting a culture of adaptation by transforming campuses into Living Labs—places of shared knowledge, experimentation, and innovation.

In its first year, the CCAP outlined the climatic and regulatory context, assessed climate risks with a focus on flooding and heatwaves, and identified 116 possible adaptive actions (including 16 priority actions, selected based on urgency and speed of implementation).

It therefore marks the beginning of a pathway that now requires the implementation of targeted and shared activities: from the production of campus data to engagement and training initiatives for the entire Politecnico community, up to the gradual execution and periodic monitoring of actions.