Business Opportunties in Climate Adaptation

This is a Short Intensive Program or SIP at Harvard Business School.  It’s an optional student offering prior to the formal start of the Spring semester the following week.  SIPs tend to cover new material on current topics, to be less formal than the HBS Case Study classroom, and in particular to draw on HBS alumni and other practitioners to bring real life current expertise to the room.

Focus

This SIP looks at adaption opportunities in public health and the built environment.  It’s clear that perils like wildfire, flooding, extreme heat, air and water contamination, storm surge, and even grid freezes are taking a large and increasing toll on lives and property.  Limiting global warming, decarbonizing the economy, and investing in new technologies like wind, solar, and batteries are necessary but not sufficient:  Society (and business, and citizens, and governments) will need to make decisions about where to invest and to disinvest; and what people and assets to protect – or not to protect.  What are the decision tools?  Where is there business and investing opportunity (or obligation) in this massive worldwide exposure?

Objectives

The primary objective is to help students understand the many possible roles of business and investing in adaptation in response to present and future weather events that are related to climate change.   A major second objective is to define and refine teaching material that will go beyond this event, into the Harvard MBA classroom and other channels.  A third is to bring HBS learning and networks into trade and industry associations starting to address these perils.