Adaptation planning for business: Strategies that work

The increased frequency of extreme weather events worldwide threatens infrastructure, supply chains and workforces, creating operational challenges and raising costs for businesses. The price of inaction could be steep: PwC analysis suggests that physical climate risks could make the global economy nearly 7% smaller in 2035 than it would be otherwise. But by planning to adapt to climate change and mitigate emissions, companies can gain a competitive advantage and enhance resilience. This adaptation planning process involves protecting workers, assets and communities; building new business capabilities; innovating products and services; and rolling out tools to track vulnerabilities.

We supported the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) to provide guidance to help companies manage the business risks and opportunities that a changing climate presents. By planning this way, businesses can move beyond acknowledging potential challenges and take meaningful action to enhance resilience.

Why should businesses consider adaptation planning?

When effectively integrated, adaptation planning creates flexibility, optimises investments and uncovers new opportunities.

Key benefits are:

1. Boosting organisational resilience
2. Advancing strategic decision-making by integrating climate risk assessments and adaptation strategies
3. Accessing and capitalising on new markets and opportunities
4. Building collective resilience with stakeholders across the value chain
5. Improving reporting & disclosure

This guidance supports enterprise-level risk and sustainability teams in embedding climate adaptation planning across core business functions. The framework helps companies integrate resilience thinking into strategy, governance, operations and their broader value chains—enabling smarter investment decisions, greater climate hazard preparedness and a clear competitive edge.

Embedding climate adaptation into business functions

By equipping businesses with the tools, training and systems needed to embed adaptation into day-to-day activities, the guidance positions climate resilience as a standard part of business practice. It emphasises cross-functional and value chain collaboration to unlock new opportunities, optimise investments and build long-term resilience at the enterprise, business unit and site levels.

Core steps are:

1. Setting the scope & adaptation goals: Establish a strong business case, analyse risks and opportunities, align stakeholders and set ambitious goals.
2. Designing adaptation solutions: Identify, evaluate and select suitable options while considering financing and avoiding unintended consequences.
3. Building the plan & implementing solutions: Develop an investment roadmap, document planned actions, integrate adaptation into existing processes and pilot solutions.
4. Monitoring & evaluating: Create a framework to track progress, measure effectiveness, evaluate overall resilience and identify future action triggers.

Focusing on adaptation solution categories

Each step is important, but step two merits particular attention. At this point, companies explore the tangible approaches to managing the business challenges they might face because of physical climate hazards. Potential solutions fit into the following categories:

From adaptation options to strategic planning

This guidance provides businesses with a practical, step-by-step approach to climate adaptation planning. It outlines how to integrate resilience into core business functions—strategy, governance, operations and the value chain—while leveraging existing processes to minimise duplication and optimise resources. Through a phased approach, it helps organisations navigate uncertainty, prioritise actions and implement solutions where risks and opportunities are greatest. It also emphasises the importance of collaboration across internal teams and external stakeholders to create effective, inclusive and sustainable outcomes.