Apply now to showcase how your business is building resilience to climate change through real-world action and measurable impact.
A resilient future will not be built by ambition alone.
It will be built by organizations that can demonstrate what works.
Resilience against climate change is becoming a strategic priority for businesses worldwide. Yet resilience projects and solutions often receive less visibility, recognition, and investment than climate mitigation initiatives.
To help shift this reality, the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) and the Global Resilience Partnership (GRP) launched the Climate Resilience Awards for Business. Following a successful first edition in 2025, the initiative returns for a second year to further spotlight business leadership and innovation in climate adaptation and resilience.
We identify, evaluate, recognize, and showcase leading examples of business resilience action that deliver measurable and credible outcomes.
Applications are now open
Key Dates
Application opens:
23 June 2026
Application deadline:
30 September 2026
Finalists announced:
To be announced
Award ceremony & winners announced:
To be announced
Why these awards matter
Businesses are already investing in resilience, but many projects remain invisible.
The Climate Resilience Awards for Business aim to:
- Recognize business leadership in climate resilience and adaptation
- Establish the state-of-play of business resilience action today
- Showcase credible and measurable resilience outcomes
- Share lessons learned by publishing high-quality case studies to inspire others
- Accelerate resilience solution implementation across sectors and geographies
- Strengthen the business case and strategic importance for resilience for business
Our ambition:
Make business resilience action more visible, measurable, investable, and scalable
Award categories
Businesses can submit case studies under four categories.
Building Climate-Proof Infrastructure
This category celebrates projects that strengthen the resilience of the built assets, facilities, energy systems, transport systems, industrial operations and other critical infrastructure of businesses, municipalities, and communities against acute and chronic climate change-related hazards.
Promoting Water Stewardship
This category highlights businesses’ efforts put into managing water stress and ensuring water security by addressing flood, drought, and water management, in particular with solutions that prevent water-related disruption or improve the security of water supply for business and communities.
Safeguarding Agriculture & Food Systems
This category recognizes companies that build resilience across agriculture and food systems, from agricultural production to processing, storage, logistics, and distribution, helping ensure food security and nutrition in the face of climate-related physical risks and supply chain disruptions.
Protecting People First
This category focuses on projects that strengthen the capacity of workers, customers, value chain partners and communities to cope with, adapt to, and transform in response to climate change.
Why apply?
Gain recognition & credibility
Receive independent recognition for your organization’s leadership in climate resilience and adaptation through a robust and credible evaluation process and by a globally acclaimed jury.
Increase visibility
Showcase your project to business leaders, investors, policymakers, resilience practitioners, media audiences, and potential partners.
Demonstrate impact
Highlight measurable resilience outcomes and communicate the value your project creates for business, people, nature, and climate.
Benchmark your progress
Compare your approach against leading practices and learn from organizations advancing resilience across sectors and geographies.
Join a community
Connect with a growing network of businesses, experts, and practitioners committed to accelerating climate resilience action for business.
Inspire action
Share lessons learned, contribute to the evidence base for resilience, and help shape emerging best practices for business resilience action worldwide.
Join businesses leading climate resilience action
If your organization is working on becoming more resilient against climate change, or helping others achieving resilience, we encourage you to apply.
FAQ
1. Who can apply?
Applications are open to business organizations of all sizes, sectors, and geographic locations.
Both of the following applicant types are welcome:
Resilience & Adaptation Implementers
Organizations improving the resilience or adaptive capacity of their operations, assets, people, infrastructure, within and beyond their value chain.
Resilience Solution Providers
Organizations offering products, services, technologies, financing, or advisory support as part of their business model that help their clients, customers or other beneficiaries become more resilient against climate change.
Solution providers are encouraged to submit applications that provide information on project implementation and resilience impact from their client’s perspective to demonstrate the resilience outcomes in practice.
SMEs and corporates compete separately
To ensure fair competition and comparability between organizations of different scales, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) compete separately from large companies and multinational organizations within each award category.
2. What types of projects can you apply with?
Examples of eligible resilience projects include:
- Infrastructure resilience projects
- Nature-based solutions
- Water stewardship initiatives
- Workforce resilience programs
- Supply chain resilience projects
- Climate-risk data and analytics solutions
- Insurance and financing mechanisms
- Resilience focused products, services or business models
- Climate resilience-focused technologies
- Community health, well-being and livelihood protection programs
- Educational and capacity building initiatives
- Agriculture and food system resilience projects
We welcome applications from both Resilience & Adaptation Implementers and Resilience Solution Providers.
All applications should be able to demonstrate implementation beyond the concept stage.
See examples for each solution type in the Application Guide.
3. What is resilience and climate change adaptation?
Resilience (IPCC) is the capacity of social, economic and environmental systems to cope with a hazardous event or trend or disturbance, responding or reorganizing in ways that maintain their essential function, identity and structure. Resilience is a positive attribute when it maintains capacity for adaptation, learning and/or transformation.
Climate adaptation (IPCC) is the process of adjustment to actual or expected climate change and its effects in order to moderate harm or exploit beneficial opportunities.
4. Is this an adaptation award?
The Awards recognize both climate adaptation and broader resilience-building actions. Adaptation is an important part of resilience, but resilience also includes preparedness, response, recovery, transformation, and long-term competitiveness.
5. What are the awards looking for?
Through the Awards, we are looking to spotlight initiatives with measurable and credible business resilience and sustainability outcomes.
We are looking for projects or solutions that help organizations either to:
- Cope with climate risks, absorb climate shocks and maintain critical functions
- Adapt and adjust operations and strategies to changing climate conditions
- Transform and create long-term resilience through new systems, business models, partnerships, or other approaches
Successful applications clearly demonstrate:
- What climate challenge was addressed
- What solution was implemented
- Collaboration beyond organizational boundaries
- What changed as a result
- How impact was measured
6. Does the award have an entry fee?
No. Any business meeting the eligibility criteria can submit applications for free.
7. Can my business apply if we provide resilience-building products or services to our clients?
Yes. Organizations providing products, services, technologies, financing, data, or advisory solutions as part of their business model are encouraged to apply.
We encourage solution providers to develop their application jointly with a client to demonstrate the impact of their solution through implementation. Eligible applications will be showcased as case studies on the Business Action Bank and The Climate Drive.
8. Can we submit more than one project?
Yes. Organizations may submit multiple projects as case studies, provided each submission relates to a distinct project or initiative.
9. Can one project be submitted to multiple categories?
No. Each project may only be submitted once. Applicants may indicate a secondary award category preference, and organizers reserve the right to reassign projects where appropriate.
10. Do projects need to be completed?
No. Projects may be in pilot, scaling, or operational phases, provided they demonstrate implementation and early evidence of impact.
11. How are SMEs assessed?
SMEs and corporates are evaluated separately to ensure fair comparison between organizations of different scale and resources.
12. How are projects evaluated?
Each submitted project case study goes through first an eligibility criteria screening. If the eligibility criteria are met, case studies are assessed based on the evaluation criteria, which focuses on impact, credibility and potential. Case studies that demonstrate measurable and credible business resilience and sustainability impact, implementation credibility and potential for innovation, scaling and / or financial viability become Finalists and proceed to be evaluated by our independent expert Jury.
For more details on the evaluation process, please see the Application Guide.
13. What types of supportive documents can be submitted?
Examples may include impact reports, monitoring data, independent evaluations, dashboards, implementation plans, photographs, videos, client testimonials, website links, certifications and press coverage.
Submitted materials must clearly support the case study’s claims on impact, credibility and potential. You may submit minimum 2 and maximum 5 supportive documents.
14. Where will my case study be published?
Case studies that demonstrate measurable and credible business resilience and sustainability impact, implementation credibility and potential for innovation, scaling and / or financial viability become Finalists and qualify to be published on the Business Action Bank and The Climate Drive.
Outline
