The Business Leaders Guide to Climate Adaptation and Resilience has been developed by the World Business Council of Sustainable Development (WBCSD), Bain & Company, and Jupiter Intelligence with support from leading businesses across sectors and geographies.

The guide supports companies to integrate adaptation and resilience into organizational strategy, governance, and operations. It offers a modular approach for businesses at all stages, with tools, frameworks, and case studies designed to catalyze action across different adaptation challenges. It also includes a C-suite agenda that summarizes the role of key business leaders in creating an adaptive and resilient organization.

To kickstart action and investment from the private sector, there must be a transformation in business engagement with an understanding of adaptation. Businesses must build adaptive capacity, create new business models, and undertake a major upskilling drive to meet this challenge. Business leaders have a critical role and responsibility to increase their organization’s action and investment in building resilience:

• CEOs must update the business strategy to make climate adaptation a key priority, alongside decarbonization.
• CFOs can safeguard the financial stability of the organization by putting in place a strong and flexible adaptation plan.
• COOs and Heads of Business Units can assess and activate new transformative business opportunities for climate adaptation and resilience.
• CROs (Chief Risk Officers) underpin all actions by leading through and creating a targeted analysis of business risks within and beyond the value chain.

The guide is for all business leaders who can leverage this guidance to:

• Build or adjust their organization’s approach to managing physical risk and opportunities and consider key needs and actions under each business function.
• Access practical frameworks and best practices for building business resilience.
• Reflect on the experiences and approaches of best-in-class peers through the diverse case studies from across sectors and geographies.
• Take immediate next steps to further their organization’s adaptation journey.

About WBCSD

The World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) is a community of about 230 global businesses that are making sustainability performance a key driver for competitiveness. Established in 1995, WBCSD is a nonprofit member-led organization that connects business leaders across all sectors and major economies, creating tools and frameworks to scale collective impact, power cross-sector innovation, and shape an ambitious, enabling policy agenda. It operates from seven offices worldwide—in Geneva, New York, Chicago, Amsterdam, London, Singapore, and Wuhan—enabling collaboration across value chains and geographies. Together with its members, WBCSD is rewiring economic and financial systems to support the transition to a net-zero, nature-positive, and inclusive future that creates business value.

About Jupiter

Jupiter is the trusted leader in climate risk analytics for organizations looking to strengthen their climate resilience. The increasing frequency and severity of extreme weather events across the globe are having a major impact on economies, businesses, and communities. With forward-focused, rigorous methodologies, and analytics delivered by some of the best scientists in the industry, Jupiter turns gold standard climate science into actionable data. Customers proactively assess the physical risks in their portfolios, address regulatory requirements and evaluate potential reputational concerns. To find out more, visit jupiterintel.com.