Marta WOJTKIEWICZ, auteur sur Pink strategy

Heatwaves are just a symptom: how to build a genuine climate change adaptation strategy

13 Aug 2026 | CLIMATE CHANGE ADAPTATION

For several years, businesses have been mobilising to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions. Decarbonisation has gradually emerged as a strategic priority, driven by regulatory changes, customer expectations, the need to transition away from fossil fuels, and the urgency of limiting global warming.

Another issue is now strongly coming to the forefront: climate change adaptation. For a long time, these two concepts were viewed as opposing forces. For some, talking about adaptation meant accepting that climate change was inevitable, or even giving up on emissions reduction efforts.

In reality, it is quite the opposite. Decarbonisation aims to avoid the unmanageable; adaptation is about managing the unpreventable consequences. The two approaches are inseparable.

Even if global emissions were to drop significantly tomorrow, companies will still have to face more frequent heatwaves, droughts, floods, resource scarcity, and supply chain disruptions.

The challenge is no longer choosing between mitigation and adaptation, but acting on both levers simultaneously.

An adaptation strategy goes far beyond technical issues

Adapting is not just about reinforcing a building or adding extra physical protections. An effective approach encompasses every aspect of how a company operates.

It concerns employees, by adapting working conditions, protective equipment, or work schedules during heatwaves.

It addresses buildings and infrastructure, by improving summer thermal comfort, greening spaces, or strengthening their resistance to climate hazards.

It also prompts companies to rethink supply chains, raw material availability, logistics, networks, and future customer expectations.

In certain sectors, it even requires anticipating profound market shifts. Companies have every incentive to integrate the transformations that will shape their business over the coming decades today.

Thinking across multiple time horizons

An adaptation plan does not only address tomorrow’s emergencies. Some actions can be implemented within the next five years, while others require a 20-year vision, or beyond.

Not everything will be launched immediately. However, actions must be identified, evaluated, and integrated into the company’s investment strategy. This approach helps anticipate budgets, skill sets to develop, and project feasibility over time.

An adaptation plan is never set in stone. It evolves alongside scientific knowledge, feedback from experience, and organisational changes.

An approach that involves and supports the entire organisation

Adaptation cannot rely solely on executive leadership. It involves business units, operational teams, Human Resources, procurement, real estate, logistics, and governance. Most importantly, it must be fully integrated into corporate strategy so that today’s decisions remain aligned with tomorrow’s challenges.

Bringing in an external perspective often helps introduce a proven methodology, share cross-sector best practices, and build tools that teams can seamlessly adopt for the long term.

The goal is not to create an extra layer of process, but to build a living framework that is regularly reassessed and capable of supporting the company’s evolution.

PINK Strategy team helps organisations analyse climate risks, build adaptation strategies, and define actionable roadmaps.

Adapting to climate change is not about predicting the future with absolute certainty. It is about creating the conditions today that will allow us to continue operating tomorrow.

Ready to take the step? Contact our experts!

Material audit: a structuring approach to managing your flows and supply chains

6 Aug 2026 | MATERIAL AUDIT

Raw materials are at the heart of current economic challenges and ongoing geopolitical conflicts. Between shortage risks, procurement competition, and skyrocketing prices, implementing an initiative to reduce material vulnerability is a highly strategic decision. To get started, ADEME (the French Agency for Ecological Transition) has developed a well-thought-out methodology: the material audit (bilan matières).

What is the role of raw materials in building our resilience?

Faced with the climate emergency, many companies have learned to measure their greenhouse gas emissions and commit to reducing them to contribute to the collective effort toward carbon neutrality. While climate strategies have taken up significant bandwidth in CSR departments, another issue has emerged: resource availability.

In a world where certain raw materials—particularly metals—are becoming scarce while their consumption continues to rise, procurement has become a highly strategic topic for manufacturing and processing industries of all sizes. Although various regulations promoting the circular economy compel businesses to address the issue, physical, economic, and political necessity is the primary force driving them to build clear-eyed, sustainable strategies today.

Multiple methods and approaches can be helpful, depending on a company’s profile and level of commitment. Sustainable purchasing policies, life cycle assessments (LCA) leading to product eco-design, environmental management systems, and industrial and territorial ecology initiatives all offer valuable answers for resource management. However, there is also a lesser-known and uncomplicated method to implement: the material audit.

Formalised by ADEME in 2020 as a counterpart to greenhouse gas emissions audits, the material audit addresses two major challenges for industrial processing companies. Specifically, it aims to improve material efficiency in production practices (“doing better with less”) and reduce vulnerability to supply chain risks.

How to improve material efficiency

The first component of the methodology consists of analysing internal production flows to identify potential inefficiencies, discover optimisation opportunities, and control material volumes.

The process begins with an inventory of materials used across various production processes (including volumes and waste), followed by a material criticality assessment. By cross-referencing impact levels and maturity, companies generate criticality matrices for each material. Next, internal flows of critical materials are modeled to build a comprehensive map incorporating both physical volumes and the financial value of the studied materials.

With this detailed picture of production, companies can analyse material efficiency by calculating loss rates and costs, and pinpointing their root causes—whether organisational, operational, or technical. Based on this baseline, action plans and internal/external opportunities are identified (for instance, through industrial and territorial ecology initiatives that promote local synergies among businesses operating in the same geographic areas), and goals are established.

How to reduce material vulnerability?

The second component of the material audit looks beyond internal operations to examine functioning from a broader perspective. This approach combines various analyses companies may already conduct, such as value chain mapping, risk assessments (particularly climate-related), and double materiality assessments.

The strength of this method lies in its relative simplicity combined with its ability to factor in data across multiple domains: climate, geological, technological, economic, and geopolitical.

As before, the first step is evaluating the criticality of each material. Is it strategic for my business? Am I dependent on it? Where does it originate? Are there current or upcoming regulatory restrictions on its use? How is pricing structured, and does it experience major volatility?

To measure vulnerability, suppliers are also examined under a microscope. Are they geographically and economically diversified? Are there any monopolies? What is the nature of the relationship? Is it a position of strength, weakness, or a balanced partnership?

It is equally important to understand commodity market trends, competing industries, political risks, potential shortages, and consumer preferences. This phase also provides an opportunity to evaluate the role of each material in production. Is it substitutable? What share of revenue depends on it? Is it aligned with climate, environmental, and social commitments?

PINK Strategy guides you with cross-disciplinary expertise

While the material audit is not particularly complicated itself, it requires active participation from various business departments, along with in-depth operational and desk research across multiple subjects. This is where PINK Strategy can assist. Combining expertise in life cycle assessment, eco-design, asset management, climate risk analysis, geopolitical studies, and critical raw material markets, our team delivers comprehensive, multi-criteria, and ambitious material audits.

Airports and climate: adaptation becomes a business continuity challenge

12 Jun 2026 | CLIMATE RISKS

An aircraft unable to take off due to extreme heat. A runway rendered unusable after a heavy rainfall event. Infrastructure weakened by more frequent and intense storms.

For a long time, climate challenges in the aviation sector were primarily addressed through the lens of decarbonisation. Today, however, another issue has become unavoidable: the ability of airport infrastructure to remain operational within an increasingly volatile climate context.

The consequences of climate change no longer concern just the environment. They directly impact operations, safety, infrastructure, workers, travelers, and ultimately, the economic performance of airport hubs.

What climate risks do airports face?

Heatwaves are becoming more frequent and intense. Beyond causing discomfort for passengers and on-site teams, these extreme temperatures also affect materials and aircraft operational performance. Some aircraft require longer takeoff distances, consume more fuel, or demand a reorganization of flight schedules to avoid peak heat periods.

Conversely, extreme cold snaps also continue to represent a major operational challenge, particularly through aircraft de-icing requirements and the additional constraints they place on operations.

Shifting precipitation patterns are also becoming an increasingly structuring challenge. Extreme rainfall can flood runways and severely disrupt activity. Meanwhile, storms and high winds weaken critical infrastructure, such as control towers or sensitive technical equipment.

Finally, airports located in coastal areas must integrate the risks associated with rising sea levels and marine submersion events.

These hazards have direct consequences for operators: delays, flight cancellations, temporary business interruptions, unforeseen repairs, urgent mobilization of skills, or accelerated investment in new equipment can quickly generate significant financial losses.

But beyond the immediate economic impact, the core issue is business continuity.

Adaptation and resilience assume strategic importance

Adaptation involves evolving infrastructure and operating models to anticipate the effects of climate change.
Resilience refers to a system’s ability to maintain its essential functions despite the occurrence of an extreme event.

These two approaches are closely linked. Adapting infrastructure without strengthening its resilience severely limits its long-term effectiveness. Conversely, it is difficult to talk about resilience without integrating a forward-looking vision of future climate trends.

For airports, this now means anticipating scenarios that would have seemed exceptional just a few years ago.

The foundation: vulnerability analysis & stress testing

Before defining solutions, one indispensable step remains: climate risk and vulnerability analysis. This process relies on a deep understanding of the local territory, infrastructure, and operations. It requires studying past climate events, the responses provided, existing points of fragility, and future climate projections.

The objective is to identify critical assets, assess exposure levels, and measure potential impacts on operations.

This analysis must also involve all stakeholders. The challenges do not just concern governance or technical departments; operational teams, who experience these situations on the ground, play an essential role in identifying real vulnerabilities.

Stress-testing exercises then allow operators to go further by simulating extreme scenarios:

What happens when multiple hazards occur simultaneously?
At what point can activity no longer be maintained under acceptable conditions?
What are the critical thresholds?

These approaches make it possible to build coherent, prioritized adaptation strategies.

What are the adaptation solutions?

Some solutions are technological, such as upgrading drainage systems, reinforcing infrastructure, or evolving technical equipment. Others rely on nature-based solutions, such as airports’ areas greening or integrated stormwater management to better absorb heavy rainfall events.

The challenge lies in identifying the most relevant solutions considering operational constraints, costs, risk levels, and business continuity objectives.

This reflection must also be conducted across the entire airport ecosystem. An airport relies on a vast number of critical interfaces: power grids, IT systems, public transport, water management, waste treatment, and logistical access. The vulnerability of just one of these links can impact the operations of the entire hub.

For several years, industry players have been accelerating their integration of these issues. The increasing intensity of climate hazards, financial losses already observed, and European regulatory changes are strongly driving this momentum.

While not all airports currently share the same level of maturity, a clear reality is emerging: climate is becoming a fully-fledged operational parameter.

How can PINK Strategy guide you?

PINK Strategy team supports stakeholders in analyzing their climate vulnerabilities and defining adaptation and resilience strategies that balance business continuity, economic performance, and environmental challenges.

Tomorrow, an infrastructure’s capacity to withstand climate hazards will be just as strategic as its ability to ensure daily operations.