American Climate Futures

Launched in 2022, American Climate Futures is a national program designed to help businesses lead equitable and inclusive responses to the climate crisis. The program helps to prioritize solutions co-created with and focused on those most vulnerable to climate change – such as frontline workers, historically-underserved communities. The program fosters partnerships among values-driven businesses, communities, civil society, and policymakers, creating a foundation for systemic transformation. These partnerships not only advance meaningful action on climate but also unlock opportunities for innovation, resilience, and shared prosperity. This aligns with Forum's vision of business as a force for long-term prosperity and well-being for both people and the planet.

Highlights from our recent work

Business Guide to Advancing Climate Justice

Explore the Business Guide to Advancing Climate Justice, co-published in April 2024 with B Lab U.S. & Canada.

A climate justice challenge in the US

While billions are invested in climate solutions, a significant gap exists in supporting frontline communities most impacted by climate change. Communities located across low-lying coastal areas, agricultural regions, and urban areas near industrial facilities in the US are the most vulnerable and bear the brunt of climate impacts, facing displacement, health issues, and economic hardship. These harms are often compounded for low-income or disabled people and other historically underserved populations.

"We are forgotten people. They don't have respect for us. We feel excluded like we don’t matter, they don’t care about our suffering if it brings them profit."

Bridging the gap: Business action for climate justice

Business leaders increasingly recognize that a ‘just transition’ must include environmental justice and community resilience. These are becoming crucial elements of their climate action strategies, impacting their workforce, operations, and value chains. But many struggle to translate this awareness to specific actions, commitments, and partnerships to advance the necessary work at speed and scale. Uncertainty around what actions and investments to prioritize, and what it takes to develop meaningful partnerships with climate vulnerable communities in areas touched by their operations and supply chains, has slowed progress.

"Show up. Listen. Meet folks where they are. People endure so much hardship with high levels of crime and poverty. And environmental racism goes on and on. It is important to meet people with kindness, compassion and gratitude. Help thy neighbor... We need a holistic approach to these issues -- education is tied to opportunity, workforce development. Lack of access to technology. Health care access. All are tied together as one.”

Partner with us in 2025

Is your business interested in driving change internally and having a positive impact in the communities in which you operate? We would love to partner with and help you accelerate your organization’s equitable and inclusive response to the climate crisis. We have the following offerings. Please get in touch to learn more.

"How do you start a conversation if people aren’t going to be honest, treat you as equal? It’s not upon community to come to industry – business models need to change... Businesses reach out in communities that look like them. We don’t get that type of response in our community."

Join our Equitable Climate Solutions Collaborative (ECSC). Through this collaborative working group, we will facilitate sessions in which businesses can share challenges, exchange learnings, and identify potential areas to collaborate on solutions to advance climate and environmental justice.

Engage a community in which your business operates. Are you interested in learning more about the communities your business impacts and co-creating climate solutions that benefit community members, as well as your business? We help teams launch place-based engagements.

Embed equity into sustainability strategy. We offer tailored learning workshops and climate justice strategy development to help businesses embed climate justice principles into decision-making, operations, value chains, and policy advocacy work. From half-day lunch-and-learns to long-term strategy programs, we tailor solutions to meet your needs. Example engagements include:

Community-led nature-based solutions (exploring the role of community-driven initiatives in advancing biodiversity and addressing climate challenges)

Critical friend reviews

Policy strategy

KPI development

Resilient supply chains (strategies for transparency, sourcing, and connecting cases to create a business justification for action)

Business case for change

Partner with us to share practical insights and guidance for how to build the case for change. Co-host an event with us or invite us to present to your team to amplify the case for action. We can share insights from the Business Guide for Advancing Climate Justice and more about our place-based work, as well as offer practical tools and solutions to inspire and enable your business to act.

Get in touch

Reach out to our team for more information on how to get involved.

Resources for taking action on climate justice

Watch our webinar from the launch of the Business Guide to Advancing Climate Justice [April 2024]

Listen to the American Climate Futures podcast, a special edition of the Futuring Podcast, which aims to shine a light on changemakers who are meaningfully accelerating climate justice and radical collaboration across the United States, showing that the urgent and necessary change is possible and already here. Find us on your favorite podcasting platforms: Spotify, Google Podcast, Amazon Music, Listen Notes and more.

Read our recent blogs:

Why visionary leadership is essential for climate justice progress [July 2024]

New Guide Outlines 7 Principles for Partnering with Frontline Communities [May 2024]

Advancing climate justice: A call to action for businesses [April 2024]

A red, white, and warming world: How the climate crisis threatens the rights being celebrated on the Fourth of July [July 2023]

Our new, inconvenient truth: an urgent need to address historic setbacks and root causes if the U.S. is to truly transform [September 2022]

Forum for the Future would like to thank 3M and Kimberly-Clark Foundation for their financial support to make this initiative possible.

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