The startup repath shows how climate resilience can future-proof businesses

14 January 2022, by Lia McGarrigle

Photo: Unsplash/Davide Pietralunge

Climate change is a moral issue, but it is also something that businesses need to contend with and prepare for. Extreme weather events like floods, extreme heat waves or cold spells, and wildfires are increasing in frequency and intensity and will only get worse if the world’s climate goals are not met. In addition, gradual climate changes lead to changes in temperature or wind, which will reshape sectors and market demands. What this means is that we must adapt to our changing world — climate change is not an impending eventuality; its effects are already here.

Hamburg-based startup repath, whose co-founders Julius Pröll and Thomas Remke are part of the Center for Earth System Research and Sustainability (CEN) at the University of Hamburg, is offering a solution to help companies future-proof their businesses. Through its Climtelligence Solution, repath translates climate science by analyzing over 100 climate models, individualizing the findings to its customer’s precise location, and showing relevant and usable findings for companies. The result is the customer’s climate risk. This knowledge is the first step towards climate resilience — the ability to prepare for and adapt to the climate change.

Say for instance, you run a company based in Hamburg, but with a supply chain that spans multiple different countries. As the Covid-19 pandemic has shown us, global supply chains are fragile, just one extreme weather event could completely upend your entire business. repath not only analyzes climate risk at your main location, but it will also map your supply chain, enabling you to make informed decisions about the future shape of your company and put processes in place to mitigate any risks. In addition to the supply chain, repath focuses on infrastructures, such as those of energy service providers or transportation.

The science is clear, climate scientists can model scenarios quite well and make projections based on data. However, what is lacking at the moment is a way for individuals and businesses to access this science. That’s where repath comes in. repath is, with its outstanding and unique solution of an ensemble approach and the highest spatial resolution currently available, part of a growing movement of climate intelligence companies to answer this gap in the market. Climate change is the defining issue of our time, and how we can adapt to its effects is one of our most urgent questions. With repath, you can help build climate resilience into your company and future-proof your business.