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.
Scroll Down to See Our Select National and International Reports
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.
Find out more about CRC’s heat strategic priority here.
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.
National Reports
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This report presents recommendations for how state governments can develop climate-resilience financial systems that help local communities invest in protecting residents, businesses, public infrastructure, private property, and natural resources from climate-driven stresses and shocks.
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Prepared for National Weather Service. Top recommendations:
Emphasize actions to improve health outcomes
Overcome messaging barriers to those at greatest risk
Tailor specific messaging in terms of location, severity, language
Expand the network of trusted intermediaries disseminating messages to include, medical professionals, social workers, and faith leaders
Issue heat-related communication sooner
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We are in persistent pursuit of ways to move climate resilience from concept to action. One gap we perceive: a lack of information on how to finance and fund resilience projects. In order for plans to be implemented, cities and utilities need money. In order for financiers to invest, they need bankable projects. This report aims to increase the number of resilience projects that improve lives and livelihoods for America.
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What would a strong, mature adaptation field look like, how can it be built on a bedrock of social equity and what would it take to build it? How is the field doing? To help answer these questions, several philanthropies have commissioned CRC to lead an assessment of the state of the climate field starting in 2017 (Kresge Foundation) with updates in 2019, 2022 and 2024 (Packard Foundation).
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CRC is an invited contributor to the nationwide Resilience21 initiative influencing the Biden presidency. We brought a particular emphasis on social equity and resilience finance. R21 focuses on the social compact, government institutions, public health, physical infrastructure, and natural environment. We continue to take the pulse.
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Affordable housing is fundamental to resilient communities. Working with a national advisory board, Enterprise Community Partners and the Institute for Building Technology and Safety we created a funding and finance guide to help affordable housing developers and owners locate resources for resilience measures that protect residents. Through the Keep Safe Miami process, the City of Miami identified additional funding to shore up multifamily low and moderate income housing resilience.
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Report out from a session at the 2024 National Adaptation Forum exploring Trends & Examples of Transformative Adaptation. A part of a bi-annual stock take of the US Adaptation Field.
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We were invited contributors to this volume, co-authoring the chapter on Climate Resilience: The Next Frontier for Community Development. Here
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We were invited by Arthur D. Little to author the hopeful TAKING ACTION ON EXTREME HEAT Appendix in this volume, including strategic and technology solutions.
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Based on our long-standing relationship with resilience leadership at the Urban Land Institute and the National League of Cities, and with the US Green Business Council, we led their annual Sustainability Summit, facilitating crucial conversations with elected and appointed city leaders about how to use data and metrics to build resilience, especially given data implications on social equity
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We were invited to chair Urban Land Institute’s advisory panel for Miami Beach Florida, investigating the City’s vanguard Stormwater Management and Climate Adaptation work. Leading twelve expert panelists alongside ULI, we provided recommendations on opportunities for green and blue infrastructure as well as regulatory, finance, and communications strategies, presenting an action plan to the city’s Mayor and Commissioners.
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Working with practitioners at Enterprise Community Partners, we developed an infrastructure platform to increase federal support for city resilience, co-creating a policy document for 100 Resilient Cities pioneered by the Rockefeller Foundation. We emphasized a national infrastructure bank, modernized methods of cost benefit analysis, resilient infrastructure rating metrics and agency coordination.
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With the American Flood Coalition, we researched and wrote case studies of State-to-municipal government technical assistance programs that aim to increase local flood resilience projects. Other jurisdictions can learn from these cases as they work to create the climate resilience project pipeline and build priority projects.
Massachusetts Municipal Vulnerability Preparedness (MVP) Program
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The Resilience Advantage is a hands-on survival and success manual for small businesses in an era of climate disruption. With storms, floods, and heat waves hitting harder and more often, climate change is no longer a distant threat—it’s rewriting the rules of daily life and the economy. This book gives entrepreneurs practical, step-by-step strategies to navigate these crises in real time.
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We conceived of, initiated, invited participants too and led a first-of-its kind collaboration with corporate sustainability leaders headquartered in the City of Chicago. From McDonalds and MillerCoors to Baxter, Abbot and ArcelorMittal, we set up a friendly competitive atmosphere to push corporate Chicago to be their sustainability best on behalf of the City of Chicago and with leadership from Edelman.
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In answer to the frequent refrain from inspired City leaders “but how do we pay for it?!” Innovation Network for Communities and CRC identified eight strategies leading cities are using to pay for large-scale climate-resilience projects, mostly to address sea level rise and flooding. These strategies amount to an initial approach for deciding who will pay what and how city governments will generate the needed revenue.
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We were an invited contributor to the National Institute of Building Sciences Multi-Hazard Mitigation Council (NIBS) Committee on Finance, Insurance, and Real Estate (CFIRE) committee. As a group of national building, finance and resilience experts, we aimed to add motivate action on the interest generated by NIBS’ study Natural Hazard Mitigation Saves which demonstrates that pre-disaster mitigation activities save society much more than they cost, at a minimum generating a 6:1 benefit cost ratio.
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With support from the Kresge Foundation, we held the core workshop at the National Adaptation Forum, to ascertain the current state of the field, profile examples of transformative action, identify examples of transformational adaptation with social equity at the center and engender commitments for resilience field leaders to enact critical actions in the next two years.
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Our report offers guidance about navigating climate-action priorities through the gauntlet of challenges created by the COVID-19 pandemic and the ensuing economic crisis. Recommendations include: Act to prepare communities for climate change; Build on residents’ behavior changes; Maximize job expansion, public health improvement and social equity.
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We created a resilience workshop for the Center for Planning Excellence, helping the nonprofit to fundraise for the work and using innovative facilitation techniques to engage participants in identifying resilience assets, gaps, and a set of near-term actions that will serve to catalyze a shift in both thought and practice toward proactive resilience-building. Let’s talk about Climate Resilience, see here.
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As New York, New Jersey and Connecticut were finalizing the Regional Plan Association (RPA) Forth Regional Plan, we mined creative ideas from finance industry leaders to create the framework for an Adaptation and Resilience Trust Fund to create implementation pathways for governance and funding that increase the region’s coastal adaptation to climate change.
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Racial and spatial segregation generates uneven exposure to flood risks and worsens economic and health consequences for BIPOC communities. We developed an integrated set of decision-making tools and resources to center racial justice in urban adaptation. Report and tool available.
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We explore social-ecological vulnerability and economic and political factors through a critical analysis of Miami Beach, Florida and Buras, Louisiana.
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In 2020, 22 weather events across the U.S caused $95 billion in cumulative damages, shattering previous records. States must move swiftly to build their resilience to these and other climate impacts. In doing so, they can save billions of dollars and make America’s communities more vibrant, healthy and prosperous.
An update to the 2018 version, the 2021 Governors’ Climate Resilience Playbook outlines 12 foundational steps to set and achieve an effective state-level climate resilience agenda.
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With the American Society of Adaptation Professionals. Walks users through ten characteristics to integrate into climate resilience projects to ensure they're ready to receive the funding and finance. Co-created, along with a Technical Guide, by the American Society of Adaptation Professionals. Included in the U.S. Climate Resilience Toolkit, and its “Steps to Resilience” planning framework. Made possible in part by a NOAA cooperative agreement with Climate Resilience Fund.
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For the The U.S. Climate Alliance, in collaboration with Smart Growth America, aimed at helping states use and manage lands in ways that reduce climate pollution and build greater resilience to climate impacts.
This guide emphasizes the importance of land use planning in reducing GHG emissions, sequestering carbon, and improving climate resilience. The guide showcases successful land use policies from various states, demonstrating the potential for transformative impact on communities and ecosystems.
See here
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CRC has collaborated with over 20 community-based organizations nationwide to lead resilience hub design and budgeting projects. These hubs are essential community-serving facilities that support residents, coordinate resource distribution, and enhance community cohesion before, during, and after natural hazard events.
Building upon the insights from these initiatives, CRC partnered with several organizations to create the Resilience Hub Planning and Design Compendium. This comprehensive resource delves into the necessity of resilience hubs, their functions, target populations, essential requirements, and actionable steps for their development. The compendium features seven detailed case studies, offering practical examples and lessons.
See here
International Reports
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Global construction materials company CEMEX developed its market-based "Patrimonio Hoy" solution to meet the housing needs of vulnerable families in urban and semi-urban areas, combining resilient and sustainable building with a savings program to improve communities and families’ quality of life. Given the growing impact of climate change, the expansion of this program can help fill the climate resilience gaps that exist throughout the world. This case study describes this innovative housing solution, how it creates impactful climate resilience, and what paths CEMEX and Patrimonio Hoy might take going forward.
Por favor haga clic aquí para el informe en español.
Click here
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A report for the Canadian Climate Institute. Private capital is needed to invest in climate adaptation infrastructure as extreme weather events like fires and floods become more acute by the year. Public funding isn’t enough to meet the investment needs for adapting Canadian infrastructure to climate change.
The challenge is particularly acute for municipalities, which have limited resources and capacity to address the effects of climate change on Canada's public infrastructure despite owning and operating almost two-thirds of it.
Report en français
See here
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We were invited to contribute a chapter in a volume edited by Island Press with backing from the Kresge Foundation, based on our vanguard work defining climate resilience success as requiring a bedrock of social equity.
Our article, “Climate Disasters Hurt the Poor the Most. Here’s What We Can Do About It,” was followed by additional articles about how risk disclosure exacerbates rich-poor disparities, particularly TCFD.
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We were invited by our client Willis Towers Watson to participate as a resilience subject matter expert in a McKinsey Global Institute roundtable and subsequently contributed to McKinsey’s report identifying the physical effects of our changing climate.
The report explores risks today and over the next three decades and examines cases to understand the mechanisms through which physical climate change leads to increased socioeconomic risk.
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As part of her quest to understand and solve disparities in infrastructure service delivery, our founder co-authored a World Bank report identifying innovation and barriers to government investments aimed at building thriving communities. The report was crafted in parallel to her research for the paper “Innovations in Municipal Service Delivery: The Case of Vietnam's Haiphong Water Supply Company,
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We authored the chapter “Financing Resilient Infrastructure” and invited contributors to an edited volume, offering leading-edge insights on how to Finance Resilient Infrastructure.
Our aim was to offer a bridge between government resilience and sustainability leaders and the finance sector to increase assets under management for infrastructure adaptation and resilience.
We also identified gaps in the book’s content and identified and guided content from peer consultants to ensure our shared mission
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C40 and McKinsey & Company research identified a set of high-impact actions to reduce risk that are cost-effective, and satisfy many stakeholders.
Click here
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This report—developed in partnership with Arthur D. Little—provides business leaders with a clear, research-driven roadmap for adapting to accelerating climate impacts. Drawing on a four-month study, 40+ expert interviews, surveys, and scenario analysis, it examines the projected consequences of a +3°C world and identifies the technologies and capabilities companies will need to stay resilient.
See here
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The International Climate Bonds Initiative hired us as the Technical Lead of the Adaptation and Resilience Expert Group, 40 resilience and finance experts from around the globe. We led workshops and co-authorship of the Climate Resilience Principles, which guide both CBI’s sector based green bond standards and resilience investments more broadly. Major emphasis includes assessing and addressing risk at both the asset and systems level and building resilience outside of a project’s fence line. There is significant demand for the Principals - even as the project was wrapping up, it informed the EU Technical Expert Group on Sustainable Finance, guided the European Bank for Reconstruction and Developments $700M resilience bond issuance.
Click here.
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We were asked by ARISE, the Private Sector Alliance for Disaster Resilient Societies, a network led by the UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR) to co-author a Disaster Resilience Scorecard for Industrial and Commercial Buildings.
We brokered additional global talent from our network to contribute as advisors, creating a tool that enables the establishment of a baseline for, and tracking of building and campus resilience to natural hazards or man-made disasters.
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Based on our founder’s vanguard work conceiving of and creating the Urban Adaptation Assessment, she was invited to contribute a co-authored article in the Journal of Environmental Science and Policy describing how to measure a city's preparedness for future climate hazards while at the same time suggesting opportunities for resilience improvement. The analysis focused on the primary urban hazards (flooding, heat waves, and drought). Subsequently, in coordination with a set of national urban adaptation leaders, she helped to conceive of how to consider social vulnerabilities and structural exposures, in concert with climate hazards, to help ensure the distribution of resources to improve social equity across communities.
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Our founder conceived of, crafted, and carried out the world’s first corporate adaptation survey, deriving a report that describes the climate risk drivers of greatest concern and defines how climate change will affect businesses. A frontrunner in the nascent corporate climate resilience space, the report notes among other findings that thirty percent of respondents have faced or are experiencing impacts from climate change on their bottom line, sparked by droughts, super storms, social unrest and other disasters caused by climate change. More than 70 percent say they’re at least “somewhat concerned” that climate change will have a material impact on their value chain, in particular their supply chain, distribution and customers and markets. Two-thirds of respondents expressed concern over increased operational and capital costs and reported they had already experienced cost increases or thought they were a likely outcome. Click here
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As the managing director of the world’s leading index showing which countries are best prepared to handle climate disruption, our founder co-authored the report describing how GAIN selects resilience indicators and calculates a resilience score, including a description of each of the dozens of resilience measures and their data sources and rationale for their selection.
The report includes climate risk hazard measures and resilience measures for food, water, health, ecosystem services, human habitat, and infrastructure along with economic, governance and social readiness.
Click here
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Supporting WEF’s Global Agenda Council on Climate Change, we wrote a vanguard report in advance of the World Economic Forum in Davos featuring the economics of climate adaptation, financing adaptation, and the effects of climate change on the water-food-energy nexus.
The first WEF paper to focus on resilience or adaptation, the report has galvanized significant change within WEF’s sphere of influence, as the annual Global Risk Perception Survey increasingly identifies adaptation and resilience risks as top concerns in terms of both likelihood and impact.
See here.
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Our founder created one of the world’s first adaptation strategies as a City of Chicago leader.
The strategy included scenario-based physical risk assessments by Katharine Hayhoe, cost-benefit analysis of predicted future public sector losses, adaptation goals, and adaptation measures. It was audited by an external Green Ribbon Committee and attracted significant philanthropic and pro bono resources, becoming a best-in-class example for the thousands of cities that have since created plans.
See here.