Extreme Heat Dialogue Series for Companies

• Introduction (Verena Radulovic)
• Crash course on the science of heat and health (Grace Wickerson, Federation of American Scientists)
• Panel
  • The economics of heat and health in the workplace (Jisung Park, UPenn)
  • Heat in the city (Jane Gilbert, Atlantic Council Climate Resilience Center, Miami-Dade County)
  • Heat at home (Lisa Patel, Stanford)
• Forum for the Future spotlight
• Breakout group discussions
  • Sample discussion questions:
    • Which of the heat-health pathways presented — productivity losses, absenteeism, heat illness, community health spillovers — resonates most with your company’s current exposure?
    • Have you tried to quantify the economic cost of heat on your workforce — through productivity data, healthcare claims, absenteeism tracking, or other metrics? What has worked, and where do the gaps in your data lie?
    • What is one thing your company is already doing on workforce heat resilience that you think others in this room could learn from? What is one thing you’d most want to learn from peers?
• Conclusion and next steps

• Ice-breaker: What’s your heat impact pathway?
• Building out the business case for action (Jisung Park, UPenn)
• What investors are tracking on extreme heat and operational risk
• Exercise and discussion: Identification of heat-related supply chain impacts  (Sadie Frank, N4EA)

• Case study: heat governance in the apparel industry (Lucy Siers, NYU)
• Assessing heat governance maturity (Ashley Ward, Duke University)
• Operationalizing extreme heat risk governance (Hassan Damluji, Global Nation)
• Breakout group discussions

Corporate supply chains are global, interdependent, and increasingly vulnerable to extreme heat. Recent heat waves in China have shut down manufacturing facilities, cold-chain failures at transshipment points are increasing during temperature spikes, and crop yields are declining in heat-stressed regions. For companies in pharmaceuticals, food and beverage, and technology and data infrastructure, extreme heat creates both acute operational risk and strategic resilience challenges.

In tandem with C2ES’s virtual dialogues on extreme heat, C2ES is convening a virtual workshop-based research project for companies with specific interest in supply chain and operational risk. This program is designed to:

1. Map supply chain heat exposure through structured tabletop exercises that walk through indicative scenarios at each stage of your supply chain (sourcing, manufacturing, transportation, distribution).
2. Identify decision-useful information for tracking and communicating supply chain risk internally (across operations, finance, and strategy teams) and externally (to investors, insurers, and stakeholders)
3. Develop actionable metrics that translate supply chain risk assessment into operational heat resilience planning and corporate disclosure

Throughout these workshops, we will focus our sessions on (1) what makes risk and resilience information decision-useful for different stakeholders and why, and (2) where and how to respond to infrastructure interdependencies that can increase vulnerability.

Companies with global operations in pharmaceuticals/healthcare, food & beverage/agriculture, or technology and data infrastructure – sectors with inherent temperature sensitivity across their value chains.

We invite cross-functional participation: operations/logistics, supply chain/procurement, sustainability/ESG, and enterprise risk teams are all relevant. Given the interdisciplinary nature of supply chain resilience, we encourage companies to send 1-2 representatives who can speak to both operational realities and strategic planning.

All companies with heat-exposed supply chains are welcome, regardless of where you are in your resilience journey. This is designed as a co-learning environment where early-stage and advanced practitioners both contribute.

• One 2-hour sector-specific workshop (June 2026)
• Pre-session homework: ~2-3 hours to map your supply chain, and identify heat vulnerabilities at a high-level; no asset-specific information is required.
• Pre-reads: ~2-3 hours reviewing sector research and scenario materials
• Follow-up engagement: ~2 hours for findings review and feedback session (September 2026)
• Total: ~10 hours over 4 months (June-September 2026)

• Sector-specific research brief synthesizing existing heat risk and resilience practices in your industry 
• Tabletop scenario frameworks adaptable for internal planning 
• Interim findings summary from cross-sector workshops (July 2026) 
• Draft decision-useful metrics for supply chain heat resilience (September 2026) 
• Final research report with findings and case studies (Early 2027) 
• Peer network of companies working on similar challenges across sectors 

Contact Tessa Ide at idet@C2ES.org with the following information, or schedule a 15-minute exploratory call to discuss fit and expectations:

1. Name, organization, and role
2. Primary interest in participating (e.g., mapping supply chain exposure, developing internal metrics, learning from peer companies)
3. Has your company experienced a supply chain disruption attributable to extreme heat? (Examples helpful but not required)
4. Has your company completed a climate-related supply chain risk assessment previously?
5. What are you hoping to gain from this program?

Registration deadline: June 15, 2026

Workshop dates: Early July 2026

This workshop series is conducted in partnership with N4EA, a global supply chain intelligence firm.