The Adaptation Exchange: Advancing Climate Adaptation Together

Climate impacts are no longer exceptional events. Heat waves, floods, storms and droughts create recurring operational volatility for businesses across all sectors. Most organisations assess these risks; many now report under ESG frameworks. But few successfully translate that awareness into coordinated investment decisions that build lasting resilience.

The Adaptation Exchange was created to close that gap.

What the Adaptation Exchange Does

The Adaptation Exchange is a curated, cross-sector collaboration platform that drives the implementation of climate resilience across organisations and value chains. It brings together corporates, financial institutions, insurers, and solution providers under shared logic, clear standards, and concrete demand signals.

Founding corporate members include Allianz, Bayer, ArcelorMittal, BASF, and Vonovia—joined by adaptation economy specialists and think tanks committed to turning resilience from a reporting exercise into operational reality.

The platform is operated by DSR & Partners – Climate Adaptation Advisory, based in Viersen, Germany, with the shared ambition of advancing the climate adaptation economy at scale.

The Implementation Gap

The challenge is not a lack of knowledge. It is execution:

• Standards are fragmented. No common framework connects how corporates assess, decide on, and demonstrate resilience.
• Business cases are unclear. Without shared investment logic, capital stays on the sidelines.
• Functions remain siloed. Risk, finance, operations, and procurement rarely coordinate on adaptation.

Markets accelerate when language, standards, and examples align. The Adaptation Exchange is designed to create exactly that alignment.

The Three Pillars

1. Assess: Resilience Standard

A practical, cross-sector framework to evaluate the current state of climate resilience across organisations, assets, and value chains. The standard creates shared language and enables meaningful benchmarking.

2. Decide: Business Case for Adaptation

Forward-looking decision frameworks that translate resilience priorities into investment narratives and governance commitments. This pillar directly addresses the implementation gap by making adaptation financially legible.

3. Demonstrate: Adaptation Stack

A flagship programme showcasing how coordinated portfolios of adaptation solutions reduce real business impacts from climate hazards—providing the proof of concept that markets need to accelerate.

Climate+Tech as Founding Partner

Climate+Tech joins the Adaptation Exchange as a founding partner, contributing in three areas:

Product and Solution Discovery We help identify and evaluate adaptation tools, technologies, and services that can be deployed within corporate value chains—connecting the innovation landscape with organisational needs.

Research Collaborations We bridge academic climate research with the platform’s practical work. This includes connecting the Adaptation Exchange to emerging evidence on firm-level adaptation, financial materiality of physical climate risks, and the effectiveness of specific adaptation strategies.

Scientific Support We provide methodological and scientific input to the platform’s frameworks—ensuring that the Resilience Standard and Business Case methodologies are grounded in up-to-date evidence from climate science and economics.

Why the Science Matters

A growing body of academic research supports the platform’s thesis. New large-scale analysis of over 13,500 US public firms (2003–2025) confirms that firms that invest in physical protection before extreme weather events recover better in financial markets—with pre-event adaptation offsetting up to 37% of hurricane-related stock market losses. At the same time, the research shows that financially constrained firms systematically underadapt, raising questions about systemic risk concentration.

This evidence underpins the urgency of the Adaptation Exchange’s work: the gap between those who adapt and those who cannot is not merely a corporate strategy question—it is a structural risk to financial stability and supply chain integrity.

→ Read the full research: Firm-level Climate Change Adaptation

Related events in Zurich

The broader adaptation and resilience conversation converges in Switzerland each spring at Climate Week Zurich. For how we see it connecting to disclosure, tools, and cross-sector action—including links back to our projects—see our note Climate Week Zurich 2026.