Case Study
Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue
Service: Climate Change Resilience
CASE STUDY BACKGROUND
Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service
is one of the largest fire and rescue services
outside London, with over 1,800 members of
staff and 41 fire stations, serving a culturally
diverse population of 2.5 million people.
From modern inner-city developments to traditional
mill towns, Greater Manchester is made up of ten very
different districts: Bolton, Bury, Manchester, Oldham,
Rochdale, Salford, Stockport, Tameside, Trafford and
Wigan. GMFRS’s vision is to make Greater Manchester
a safer place by being a modern, community-
focused and influential fire and rescue service.
CLIMATE CHANGE DRIVERS
The Boxing Day floods in 2014 led to 1,000
emergency calls to the fire service in 24 hours.
In February 2014, wind speeds of up to 90 miles
per hour caused trees to fall and resulted in
1,000 calls to the fire services; more than on their
typically busiest period around Bonfire night.
Climate change is a megatrend that cannot be
ignored. IEMA’s 2017 publication, Mega trends:
How to identify and integrate these into your
environmental systems highlighted the following
as the most influential results of climate change:
• It will rain more heavily, causing local surface
water and river flooding. Rain is forecast to be
5–10% heavier from 1990 by 2010–39, 20% heavier
by 2040–59 and 20–40% heavier by 2060–2115
• The biggest changes in precipitation in winter,
increases up to +33%, are seen along the
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western side of the UK. Rainfall in the North
West is set to increase by another 35% by
2050. Local water table changes could mean
that soakaways don’t work as designed
20 Case Study: Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service: Climate Change Resilience
As an emergency service, it is increasingly on the
front line in response to weather-related incidents.
As climate change becomes more and more of a
concern, the service’s mission statement is clear
– ‘to protect and improve the quality of life for
communities in Greater Manchester’. However, what
were once considered ‘freak’ weather events are
now becoming increasingly common, and in recent
years more and more strain has been put on the
emergency services to respond to unusual events.
Source: GMFRS
Figure 2
• UK sea levels could be between 12 and 76cm
higher than today by the end of the century
• ‘Multi-hazard’ events are becoming more
frequent (storms bringing wind, rain and
flooding), bringing disruption to the value
chain, operations and having a social cost
• Peak temperatures in towns and cities could
be up to 6°C hotter than today by 2050. Fewer
very cold days will mean increased demand
on air conditioning and water resources
• Water scarcity will mean drier summers,
causing droughts and ground shrinkage.
The biggest changes in precipitation in
summer, down to about -40%, are seen
in parts of the far south of England
• Impacts on one part of the built environment
could impact on another (e.g. a flooded
substation could cut power to buildings)
• More violent weather leads to an increase
in road traffic collisions and fallen trees
(and in some cases, buildings)
In conjunction with this, resources such as
water need to be better managed, and the
environmental consequences of fires, flooding
and chemical spills all need to be mitigated.
GMFRS recognises that these are issues
that cannot be ignored, stating:
GETTING LEADERSHIP ON BOARD
It was recognised that there was a need to drive
action on sustainability from the top down, and to
engage all members of the service in environmental
initiatives in order to get them on board.
Prestigious organisations leading in sustainability
were invited to present to senior management to
GMFRS ENVIRONMENTAL STRATEGY
Already committed to the Environmental
Management System Standard ISO14001, the
Fire Service has now migrated to the 2015
Standard, incorporating more emphasis on
life-cycle thinking, leadership, communication
and environmental risks and opportunities.
Having already established how the environment
directly impacts its operations, the GMFRS is ideally
placed to respond to changes in environmental policy,
and the service’s own sustainability policy incorporates
five overarching ambitions to achieve by 2050:
1. To have a positive carbon footprint, averting
more CO2 emissions than it produces
2. To produce zero waste, reusing everything it can
3. To cause no unnecessary pollution from fire-fighting
4. To waste no water, from its own sites or attending incidents
5. To be leaders on sustainability
Case Study: Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service: Climate Change Resilience
The changes in our climate driving extreme weather
events are one of the biggest environmental concerns
for GMFRS as our ability to respond to this has only
just begun to be tested. To be resilient to these events,
additional resource will be needed, and this is an
uncomfortable reality during a time of austerity.
help secure buy-in, including sustainability leaders at
BT, members of the construction community and
the CEO of Kingfisher and United Utilities. Following
this, workshops were held with relevant departmental
heads, including estates, fleet, procurement,
operational equipment and station managers amongst
others, to identify environmental issues and key
megatrends that may affect the fire service and how
these could be built into the sustainability strategy.
To work towards these objectives, it aims
to carry out the following by 2020:
• Achieve a 50% reduction in CO2
equivalent emissions vs 2008/09
• Achieve a 25% reduction in total
waste volume vs 2008/09
• Make ‘environmental salvage’ a daily part
of fire-fighting (using less environmentally
damaging methods in fire-fighting and
other forms of incident response)
• Understand the cost and volume of water use
• Train all GMFRS employees in ‘carbon literacy’
This ‘net positive’ approach means the
service will do more good than harm to the
environment, whilst still providing a safe, reliable
and efficient service in times of crisis.
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 Source: GMFRS
Figure 2.1

Sam Pickles, Partner for Sustainability, Risk and Procurement, says:

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We know we have an environmental impact. But we wouldn’t set targets around an ‘acceptable’
number of deaths from fire, because that number is and always will be zero. It should be the same
for environmental impact. In fact, we can do better than that, we should be in a place where we
do less harm than good and where we have a net positive impact on the environment.

22 Case Study: Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service: Climate Change Resilience
TRANSFERABLE KNOWLEDGE FROM CASE STUDY
GMFRS has identified the key megatrends that
will affect them now and in the future, and is
looking ahead to understand how to change
their operations in order to mitigate the effects
of climate change. This approach is particularly
laudable in light of the fact it is not a commercial
operation, and there are many lessons that
organisations can learn from this approach.
Key amongst these are to understand what an
organisation can easily do to minimise its negative
impacts on the environment, as these are often
inefficiencies and expenses that will also improve
the bottom line. Measuring and managing outputs
and inputs, and looking at ways to improve these,
is a good place to start, as is implementing the key
points from ISO14001, even if not fully certified.

LINKS TO SUPPORTING CONTENT

GMFRS environmental policy

https://www.manchesterfire.gov.uk/media/1585/sustainability-strategy-2014-20.pdf

ISO14001:2015
www.iso.org/standard/60857.html

GMFRS Sustainability Strategy 2014-2020

www.manchesterfire.gov.uk/media/1585/sustainability-strategy-2014-20.pdf

Image refs:
https://twitter.com/manchesterfire/status/943087025804271616/photo/1?ref_
src=twsrc%5Etfw&ref_url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.manchesterfire.gov.uk%2F

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