Climate Resilient Infrastructure Guidelines

Date: September 16, 2026
Time: 11:00 AM – 12:00 PM
Ballroom G

As climate hazards increasingly affect campus operations, infrastructure, and student success, CSU campuses need practical tools to assess vulnerabilities and prioritize action. This session will provide an overview of the CSU Climate Resilience Framework and how it can be used to guide campus-specific hazard analysis, critical infrastructure planning, and long-term investment decisions. Participants will leave with a clearer understanding of how resilience planning can support continuity, recovery, and mission delivery across the CSU system. Climate impacts are already affecting campus infrastructure, operations, budgets, and student success. The CSU Climate Resilience Framework offers a practical way to move from broad climate concerns to actionable planning by helping campuses identify vulnerabilities, prioritize investments, and make informed decisions about facilities, utilities, emergency preparedness, and long-term capital needs. Resilience planning is no longer a future-looking exercise; it is becoming a core responsibility for maintaining safe, functional, and mission-ready campuses. Participants will gain a clearer understanding of how to use the framework to support local decision-making, reduce risk, and better prepare campuses to continue serving students through extreme heat, wildfire smoke, flooding, power disruptions, and other climate-related events.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES
By the end of this session, participants will be able to:

• Describe the purpose and structure of the CSU Climate Resilience Framework and how it supports campus planning and operations.
• Identify key climate-related hazards that may affect CSU campuses, including impacts to infrastructure, facilities, utilities, transportation, and continuity of operations
• Explain how vulnerability and risk assessment can be used to prioritize resilience strategies and capital investments.
• Connect resilience planning to existing campus processes, including master planning, capital planning, emergency preparedness, sustainability planning, and facilities operations.
• Apply framework concepts to campus decision-making by identifying opportunities to reduce risk, improve recovery, and support CSU’s educational mission during climate disruptions.

Speakers:
Lindsey Rowell, Chief of Energy, Sustainability, and Transportation, CSU Office of the Chancellor
Rachel Patterson, University Engineer, CSU Office of the Chancellor

Lindsey Rowell, Chief of Energy, Sustainability, and Transportation, CSU Office of the Chancellor
Lindsey Rowell is the current Chief of Energy, Sustainability, and Transportation for the California State University system, based at the Office of the Chancellor. Her department is responsible for setting high level policy for system-wide carbon neutrality through energy efficiency, renewable energy, carbon divestiture and decarbonization strategies. She previously held positions as the Deputy Director of Sustainability of the Department of General Services as well as the Director of Energy Management, Utility Services and Sustainability at the California State University, San Marcos. Lindsey has holds a Bachelor’s degree in neurobiology and environmental science as well as a Master of Business Administration with a focus in corporate social responsibility.

Rachel Patterson, University Engineer, CSU Office of the Chancellor
Rachel Patterson is the University Engineer at the California State University Office of the Chancellor, where she provides technical leadership for capital infrastructure, building systems, and engineering standards across the nation’s largest four-year public university system. Her work focuses on campus decarbonization, resilience planning, utility master planning, and the planning and modernization of district energy systems that serve CSU campuses. Rachel collaborates with campus facilities leaders, consulting engineers, utilities, and state agencies to advance reliable, efficient, and resilient energy infrastructure in support of the CSU’s long-term capital and climate goals. She holds a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Carnegie Mellon University.