Climate Thought Leadership
CRC produces tools, guidance, and insight that simplify climate complexity and support real-world adaptation. We tackle emerging climate risks, equip organizations with the knowledge to lead, and translate research into accessible, equity-centered solutions that drive action.
Resilience Thought Leadership
We help shape the field of climate resilience by producing research, guidance, and tools that translate complex climate science into real-world solutions. Our thought leadership supports:
Identifying and addressing emerging climate risks
Equipping communities and organizations to adapt and thrive
Simplifying technical concepts to empower stakeholders
Advancing equity-driven frameworks and actionable insights
From national reports to local toolkits, CRC’s thought leadership helps leaders turn climate knowledge into action.
National Mortgage Provider
CRC partnered with a leading national mortgage provider to conduct research into the most effective ways to communicate climate risks to its customers.
Subsequently, CRC was retained to develop educational content around climate hazards to help home buyers, owners and renters to understand key climate risks to their homes and families. We focused on actions to prepare for, respond to, and recover from climate hazards such as flooding, wildfires, and storms. The content was designed to be accessible to families living in disadvantaged communities, who may have limited resources.
The Rockefeller Foundation
Co-leading a Bellagio convening with the Institute for Sustainable Communities, CRC gathered credit rating, municipal bond, and federal funding experts to create a Blueprint for Action to Finance Urban Resilience, which bolstered national and international resilience by recommending financial services industry policies, procedures, and funding streams.
Subsequently, we informed the Resilience Brokers Programme and the Global Transformation Roundtable as invited participants at Bellagio convenings.
The David & Lucile Packard Foundation
CRC collaborated with the David and Lucile Packard Foundation to create the 2024 report, The Tasks of Now: Toward a New Era in Climate Resilience Building which provides a strategic framework to guide philanthropic investments in scaling climate resilience efforts. Drawing on research, interviews, and expert insights, the report outlines transformative actions and principles for philanthropy to drive impactful, long-term resilience-building initiatives through targeted funding and collaboration.
The World Bank
CRC co-created a Market Trends and Investor Landscape Analysis for a Global Resilience Investment Fund with Four Twenty Seven, performing an investor survey and investigating innovative debt and equity investment tools for natural hazards, infrastructure, and small and medium-sized enterprise resilience investments.
Environmental Defense Fund
CRC considered finance options for Louisiana’s coastal restoration and protection, which will require USD 1 billion a year for 50 or more years. We identified funding and finance strategies that could support Louisiana’s natural resource restoration and protection projects. To make it feasible to implement we also explored gaps and opportunities in governance, institutional, socio-political and fiscal foundations that are required to support finance flows. The work was in collaboration with Restore the Mississippi River Delta Coalition.
National Weather Service/NOAA
CRC led the nation’s Extreme Heat Behavior Health Study, a part of National Integrated Heat Health Information System (NIHHIS), to improve extreme heat messaging to prevent extreme heat morbidity and mortality, especially among vulnerable populations. We investigated how people perceive personal risk related to heat on the human body, what information they use to make decisions, and how location, experience, and other factors impact them. To increase life-saving outcomes, we recommended institutional engagement and change to protect workers and residents.
Kresge Foundation
The Rising to the Challenge, Together report critically assesses the U.S. climate adaptation field, identifying a significant gap between the scale of climate challenges and current efforts to address them. It emphasizes that the root causes of climate change, environmental problems, and inequity are interconnected, advocating for rapid expansion and increased sophistication in adaptation strategies that prioritize vulnerable communities. The report offers sector-specific recommendations to accelerate and scale up adaptation efforts, aiming for a resilient future. CRC has led follow on work in 2019, 2022 and 2024.
University of Pennsylvania
CRC authored a chapter in Blueprint for Coastal Adaptation, a practical guide that provides communities, policymakers, and practitioners with strategies to address coastal climate challenges through sustainable approaches. Our chapter Adapt | Prepare | Retreat, a Tale of Two Cities, explores social-ecological vulnerability and economic and political factors through a critical analysis of Miami Beach, FL and Buras, LA.
US Climate Alliance
Working with USCA, CRC supported the creation of a climate land use policy guide, a comprehensive resource to support governors and other USCA members in implementing effective land use policies to address climate goals. The project included conducting a literature review, policy analysis, and stakeholder dialogues to identify gaps, themes, and recommendations in state-level land use practices. Training sessions with supporting materials ensured practical implementation and alignment with climate priorities.