Article
Climate resilience becomes an asset and supply-chain issue
How physical risk, water constraints and natural-capital dependencies can reshape where companies operate and invest.
Identify where physical climate and environmental pressures can disrupt enterprise performance before historical operating assumptions become unreliable
We connect climate hazards, environmental conditions and enterprise vulnerabilities to determine where adaptation is required across assets, operations and supply chains.
Physical climate and environmental risks rarely affect the enterprise through one channel. Heat can reduce labor productivity, water scarcity can constrain production and extreme events can disrupt infrastructure, suppliers or customer demand simultaneously. Historical averages also become less reliable as underlying conditions change. Climate and environmental risk analysis maps these hazards against critical assets and dependencies and examines how impacts can propagate. It distinguishes exposures that can be managed through operating adjustments from those requiring infrastructure, sourcing, location or portfolio changes and establishes adaptation priorities according to consequence and timing.
Focus
Climate risk matters through the assets, markets and systems it can disrupt
Physical hazards and environmental change can affect operations, supply, insurance, infrastructure and long-term investment viability.
Read nowStrategic Challenges
Which climate exposures could become material before assets can adapt?
The challenge is identifying where physical risk, dependency and adaptation lead times combine into significant enterprise vulnerability.
Read nowStrategic Impacts
Adaptation analysis makes physical exposure and response options more explicit
Linking hazards with assets and dependencies helps management prioritize resilience, relocation, protection or redesign choices.
Read nowObserved Patterns
Climate assessments often map hazards without testing operating consequence
Exposure maps provide limited value when vulnerability, recovery capacity and the economics of adaptation remain undefined.
Read nowStrategic Challenges
Which climate exposures could become material before assets can adapt?
The challenge is identifying where physical risk, dependency and adaptation lead times combine into significant enterprise vulnerability.
Read nowStrategic Impacts
Adaptation analysis makes physical exposure and response options more explicit
Linking hazards with assets and dependencies helps management prioritize resilience, relocation, protection or redesign choices.
Read nowObserved Patterns
Climate assessments often map hazards without testing operating consequence
Exposure maps provide limited value when vulnerability, recovery capacity and the economics of adaptation remain undefined.
Read nowPOV
Knowing an asset is exposed is not the same as knowing whether it is resilient
Climate strategy must test vulnerability and adaptation capacity, not stop at identifying where physical hazards exist.
Read nowOur approach
Map physical hazards through enterprise dependencies before selecting adaptation measures or assuming exposure can be insured away
Our approach� begins by identifying critical assets, operations, suppliers and infrastructure and mapping their exposure to relevant climate and environmental hazards. We assess vulnerability, consequence and time horizon and examine how impacts can propagate through interconnected systems. Scenarios test changing hazard intensity and the effectiveness of existing controls. We then compare adaptation options across operational change, engineering, redundancy, sourcing, relocation and contingency planning and prioritize interventions according to avoided consequence, timing and the degree to which exposure can realistically be reduced.
The data and estimates presented are indicative and intended for illustrative purposes. Actual outcomes may vary based on each company’s specific context, market conditions, operating model, implementation choices, and the quality and consistency of execution, including actions undertaken by the client.
Keypillars
Explore the key pillars that define this capability and shape how we create focused, measurable business impact.
Physical exposure
Maps assets, operations, suppliers, and markets against climate hazards and environmental conditions that can disrupt business activity
Adaptation priorities
Identifies where infrastructure, operations, sourcing, insurance, and continuity measures require adjustment to changing environmental conditions
Resilience planning
Connects climate scenarios with investment, operating, and risk-management choices across different geographies and time horizons
Which climate and environmental changes could materially disrupt your assets, operations or supply networks?
Get in touch with our Climate and environmental risk and adaptation team to assess exposures, vulnerabilities and adaptation priorities.
Get in touchStrategic Framework
Explore our Strategic Framework
Explore our strategic framework applied to page_title and discover which model we apply to help you achieve your goals and objectives.
Discover our framework01. Map exposure
Identify assets, operations, suppliers, markets, people, and infrastructure exposed to climate and environmental hazards
06. Track vulnerability
Monitor hazard intensity, asset exposure, adaptation progress, and changing environmental conditions
05. Design adaptation
Define engineering, operational, sourcing, location, ecosystem, and contingency responses to reduce exposure
02. Assess hazards
Evaluate heat, flood, drought, wildfire, storms, pollution, ecosystem stress, and other physical risk conditions
03. Model impact
Estimate operational, financial, supply, asset, workforce, and market consequences under alternative hazard scenarios
04. Test resilience
Assess current protections, redundancy, continuity, insurance, infrastructure, and recovery capability against future stress
How we help
Identify where physical climate and environmental hazards create material enterprise vulnerability and which adaptation measures can reduce consequence
We provide climate and environmental risk and adaptation analysis across assets, operations, supply chains and infrastructure. The work can include hazard mapping, vulnerability assessment, scenario analysis, adaptation options and resilience priorities. Outputs identify which locations and dependencies face the greatest exposure, how impacts can propagate and where operational changes, engineering, redundancy or strategic relocation can materially improve resilience.
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Physical climate risk assessment
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Climate transition risk assessment
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Climate vulnerability mapping
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Climate scenario analysis
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Asset-level climate risk
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Supply chain climate risk
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Water-related climate risk
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Heat stress assessment
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Flood risk assessment
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Wildfire risk assessment
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Climate adaptation strategy
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Adaptation investment prioritization
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Climate resilience planning
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Environmental risk assessment
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Environmental incident risk
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Climate risk monitoring
Explore our FAQs
Find answers to the most common questions about this service, including key features, processes, and practical considerations. Explore our FAQs for additional insights and guidance.
It should include operational exposure, supply chains, insurance, regulation, demand and the ability to adapt over relevant time horizons.
Assess severity, frequency, asset exposure and recovery options rather than ranking hazards independently of business consequence.
Mitigation reduces environmental impact; adaptation reduces vulnerability to climate and environmental changes that may still occur.
Use scenarios and thresholds so long-lived investments remain robust across plausible physical and policy conditions.
When exposure is material, lead times are long and delaying action could make future protection more costly or less effective.
Trace critical suppliers, locations and infrastructure where environmental hazards could interrupt supply or materially increase cost.
Track changes in vulnerability, downtime, recovery time and avoided loss rather than completion of adaptation projects alone.
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Editorial overview
Articles
Climate resilience becomes an asset and supply-chain issue
How physical risk, water constraints and natural-capital dependencies can reshape where companies operate and invest.
Read articleGreen industrial policy is changing the basis of competition
How incentives, carbon economics and sustainability regulation can alter costs, market access and strategic investment priorities.
Read articleFocus
Nature risk is becoming an enterprise issue where ecosystems support economic activity
Land, biodiversity and ecosystem services can affect supply continuity, permitting, asset value and operating legitimacy.
Sustainability investment requires the same capital discipline as any other investment
Projects should be assessed through economics, risk, strategic necessity and the cost of delaying action.
Strategic challenges
Which sustainability investments genuinely deserve enterprise capital?
The challenge is comparing regulatory necessity, resilience and economic return across projects with very different time horizons.
Which transition pathways would force different enterprise choices?
The challenge is creating scenarios divergent enough to expose strategic vulnerability without pretending uncertainty can be forecast precisely.