Lightning Protection Institute Launches Risk Assessment Week

The Lightning Protection Institute (LPI) has launched its first-ever Risk Assessment Week, a week-long initiative aimed at making risk assessment a shared starting point for resilience and life safety in every structure. This initiative, which runs from October 10 to October 14, 2023, invites the wider building community to consider the importance of risk assessment at every phase of a structure's life cycle.

Tim Harger, executive director of LPI, emphasized that operational resiliency, structural integrity, and life safety are not the work of any one trade.

The initiative focuses on the importance of a structured lightning risk assessment, which considers the property, its use, its environment, and the consequences of disruption or loss. When protection is warranted, the path forward includes standards-based design, qualified installation, independent inspection, and ongoing maintenance.

During the week, LPI will explore risk assessment from the perspective of each group that has a hand in a structure's safety and resilience. The focus will be on essential facilities, architects and engineers, facility managers, and insurance professionals.

For essential facilities, such as hospitals, fire stations, 911 centers, and water treatment plants, a risk assessment is crucial. These facilities keep a community running, and people count on them for care, help, or clean water. A risk assessment asks not only what can be damaged but what happens if a facility can't operate for a day, a week, or longer. Lightning adds one more risk to that picture, which is why a lightning risk assessment belongs at the top of the list when these facilities are designed and maintained.

Architects and engineers play a critical role in the early design conversations. Assessing risk at design protects the building and the people inside it, and reduces the damage and downtime a strike can cause. Facility managers carry the risk assessment forward for the life of the structure. A renovation, a new roof, a change in use, or a storm or strike can all change the risk. Reassessing at those moments leads to appropriate, timely maintenance and to adjustments as the building changes, and that continual cycle of assessment and maintenance is what keeps a facility safe and resilient.

Insurers have assessed and priced risk for centuries, and they look at the whole life of a structure because that is the whole life of the risk they carry. A documented lightning risk assessment is a first step in mitigating that risk early, limiting loss, and supporting insurability.

The week will close with a recap and practical tools, including a checklist of what goes into a lightning risk assessment, so every discipline can ask the right questions on its next project. LPI invites professionals across the building community to follow the series on LinkedIn and Facebook, share the posts with their teams, and use the week's resources on their own projects.

The Lightning Protection Institute (LPI) advances recognized standards, professional certification, and education for the design, installation, inspection, and maintenance of lightning protection systems. Founded in 1955, LPI represents the professionals and companies that make up the lightning protection industry, including manufacturers, certified contractors and installers, engineers, architects, and technical experts. LPI works across the building industry, sharing guidance and practical resources with every trade. Together, they help protect people, structures, and communities, supporting operational resiliency, structural integrity, and life safety.