Both cities and businesses need to prepare for climate change. That means changing how they do business today and in the future, but there’s potential for big financial benefits with change, too. Rachel Cleetus from the Union of Concerned Scientists and Harvard Business School Professor John Macomber discuss the importance of resilience.

Creating Resilience: How Businesses Can Cope with the Costs of a Warming Planet

Climate Rising is about the impact of climate change on business. It brings business and policy leaders and Harvard Business School faculty together to share insights about what businesses are doing, can do, and should do to confront climate change. It explores the many challenges and opportunities that climate change raises for managers, such as decisions about where they choose to locate, the technologies they develop and use, their strategies with respect to products, marketing, customer engagement, and policy—in other words, the full spectrum of business concerns.

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This episode in our adaptation series focuses climate change’s implications on the insurance industry. Claudine Blamey, Group Director of Sustainability at Aviva, describes how climate change evokes both transition risks and physical risks for insurance companies, and affects how insurance companies are assessing and pricing risk in their underwriting process, and influences their investment strategy. Claudine also describes innovative insurance products such as parametric and catastrophe insurance that are emerging to address natural disasters that are exacerbated by climate change. 
For resources and other episodes visit climaterising.org

How Insurance Companies are Addressing Climate Risks

This episode in our climate adaptation series features HBS Professor John Macomber. John discusses how companies and governments need to incorporate climate resilience as they develop and finance real estate and infrastructure to address the risks of flooding, wildfire, extreme heat, drought, and sea level rise. John describes “five R” options to address these risks—to reinforce, rebound, retreat, restrict, and rebuild—and highlights best practices from insurance companies and the governments of Amsterdam, Rotterdam, and Singapore. He also identifies entrepreneurial opportunities to foster adaptation and resilience. Climate Rising Host: Professor Mike Toffel, Faculty Chair, Business & Environment Initiative Guest: John Macomber, Senior Lecturer at Harvard Business School. 
For transcripts and other resources, visit climaterising.org

Building Climate - Resilient Cities and Infrastructure

This episode continues our series on adaptation, and features Jay Koh who co-founded the Lightsmith Group, the first growth private equity firm focused on climate adaptation. Jay discusses the firm’s investment strategy, the sectors his firm invests in and their investment criteria process. He also shares thoughts on the role of public policy and offers career advice. 
Climate Rising Host: Professor Mike Toffel, Faculty Chair, Business & Environment Initiative 
Guests: Jay Koh, Co-Founder and Managing Director of the Lightsmith Group
For transcripts and other resources, visit climaterising.org

The Lightsmith Group’s Adaptation Investment Strategy

In this first episode of our series on adaptation, host Mike Toffel sits down with Spencer Glendon and Alison Smart of Probable Futures. They discuss how Probable Futures tools are educating decision makers to better understand how their organizations will experience climate change, and how adaptation and resilience requires a paradigm shift in planning decisions. They describe a five-step process managers can use to identify and manage adaptation risks posed by climate change. 
For transcripts and other resources, visit climaterising.org

Visualizing our Changing Climate with Probable Futures

The bonus episode of the Climate Rising features an episode of HBR’s Cold Call podcast featuring a discussion on ethanol, a biofuel with a complex history and an uncertain future. Host Brian Kenny is joined by Professor Gunnar Trumbull and Paula Kovarsky from Raízen. As Brazil's top producer of sugar and ethanol and the world's premier ethanol trader, Raízen is at the forefront of biofuel innovation. The conversation delves into Raízen’s cutting-edge work in biofuels, the strategic choices behind advancing second-generation ethanol, and how these efforts contribute to global decarbonization initiatives.
Guest/Host: 
Brian Kenny, Chief Marketing and Communications Officer, Harvard Business School and host of Cold Call.
Gunnar Trumbull, Phillip Caldwell Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School.
Paula Kovarsky, Vice President of Strategy & Sustainability at Raízen

﻿For transcripts and other resources, visit climaterising.org










Episode specific link

Creating Resilience: How Businesses Can Cope with the Costs of a Warming Planet

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