Applying Public Health Partnership Models to Engage the Private Sector: An Effective Framework for Climate Adaptation Practitioners?

Reviewing the status of climate adaptation and resilience planning and implementation in the United States, it's apparent that states and municipalities have led the way [1, 2], with a focus on increasing community resilience largely through infrastructure resilience with growing focus on the resilience of natural systems and even embracing the idea of social resilience. Many of us working in adaptation have wondered where and how we engage the private sector, especially the business community, in the process. There have been exceptions to this - hospitals stand out as having taken steps to increase climate resilience, as vividly illustrated by the images of the deployable flood barriers around Tampa General Hospital in 2025 [3].

The late 2010s and early 2020s saw the rise of corporate sustainability and the environmental, social, and governance (ESG) movement, and the business case for sustainability was discussed widely and embraced as a way to align people, planet and profit [4]. This led to many executive and certificate programs in sustainability, including the Corporate Sustainability and Innovation certificate program that I attended at the Harvard University Extension School. Actively incorporating sustainability was articulated as a way to address consumer and shareholder expectations, engage and retain employees, and create value by reducing potential vulnerabilities associated with everything from supply chain disruption to operational continuity to environmental compliance. Paraphrasing my professor for a manufacturing sustainability class at Harvard Extension - we should call this class, how to save money.

However, while there was a surge of interest in corporate sustainability, the corporate world remained largely unfocused on resilience. When I attended GreenBiz in 2024, the closest session I could find that was resilience related was on water stewardship. Are large corporations thinking about risk to physical assets? Yes. The CDP questionnaire [5] includes questions on risk to physical assets (as well as transition risks associated with the shift to a low-carbon future), but the framing of risk mitigation is not what adaptation practitioners would recognize as a resilience implementation plan similar to what would be done for a municipality. I content there is still no resilience equivalent of the science-based targets for greenhouse gas emissions, but that is what is needed. And even if the CDP or other disclosure processes are prompting large businesses to think about the risks of flooding, heat, drought, wildfire or severe storms, that is not extending to small businesses.

Those of us involved in community resilience and adaptation have largely not been making the compelling case for action to business, but other groups are making progress in that area. The US Chamber of Commerce Foundation published two reports over the last three years [6, 7] highlighting the return on investment of resilience, and the insurance industry has clearly entered the conversation. The US Chamber of Commerce Foundation's Building Resilience Conference, which I attended in 2025 and 2026, takes a more holistic approach to resilience than the approach typically taken by climate adaptation practitioners. Resilience includes preparing for and responding to the full range of adverse impacts - natural, human, cyber - that can happen to a business. But a recent study by the Foundation [8] also revealed something important - 94% of businesses think that they could recover from a disaster, but only about one-third have a plan to do so, and only 20% have a dedicated budget for it. And business owners are likely drawing on past experiences, which may leave them less prepared to deal with future conditions associated with storms, floods, and extreme heat.

A speaker at the 2026 Building Resilience Conference said that resilient businesses are the backbone of a resilient community and that makes sense if we think about the need for the goods and services that businesses provide. How do we as adaptation professionals who are primarily focused on community resilience bring the business community into the conversation, the planning, and the implementation for resilience and adaptation? I'd argue that "making the business case" and elevating the findings of the US Chamber of Commerce reports are places to start. In addition, lessons and methods from the public health community can also be applied.

Reading the recently released Engaging Business Leaders in Public Health Partnerships resource and toolkit [9], I immediately thought about how the advice and best practices discussed could be applied to climate adaptation and resilience. In the toolkit, three key barriers to business engagement in public health issues are identified and I suggest that we can substitute "climate resilience" for "public health" and applies these to our work:

#1: Public health <Climate resilience> feels unrelated to a business's mission. (This is exacerbated by all the responsibilities that business owners, especially small business owners, have to deal with.)

#2: Public health <Climate resilience> is long-term and abstract, while businesses are focused on the here and now. (I've had this very conversation with colleagues who say, I can't get a client interested in designing for 2050 because they won't own the property by then.)

#3: Public health <Climate resilience> is polarizing - both nationally and locally. (Despite the data to the contrary, we can probably all recall encounters with others who simply do not believe that Earth's climate has changed and is changing.)

So with these barriers articulated, is the advice for overcoming them also applicable? With some modifications, yes. Here is the list from the de Beaumont Foundation's Engaging Business Leaders in Public Health Partnerships [9], with my adaptation-focused edits and notes added:

This isn't easy, nor will it happen overnight, but resilience and adaptation is truly an "all hands on deck" issue so bringing the private sector into the process is important and the next critical area of focus for state and local government and adaptation practitioners.

Sources

1. http://www.climatepolicydashboard.org
2. https://www.georgetownclimate.org/adaptation/plans.html
3. https://www.fema.gov/case-study/tampa-general-hospitals-implementation-deployable-flood-barrier-during-hurricanes-helene
4. https://doi.org/10.3390/su17052222
5. https://www.cdp.net/en/disclose/question-bank
6. https://www.uschamber.com/climate-change/new-report-finds-investing-in-resilience-saves-jobs-and-incomes
7. https://www.uschamber.com/security/beyond-the-payoff-how-investments-in-resilience-and-disaster-preparedness-protect-communities
8. https://www.uschamberfoundation.org/disasters/94-of-small-businesses-say-they-could-recover-from-a-disaster-but-only-31-have-a-plan
9. https://debeaumont.org/resources/engaging-business-leaders-in-public-health-partnerships/
10. https://www.uschamberfoundation.org/solutions/disaster-response-and-resiliency/small-business-readiness-for-resiliency

Disclaimer: While this post references reports and frameworks from various organizations, the analysis and conclusions presented here are my own and do not represent the views of my employer.