As economic developers and site selectors, we’re no strangers to evaluating the usual suspects: labor availability, logistics, utilities, taxes, and incentives. But increasingly, climate change is reshaping how and where businesses—especially manufacturers—choose to invest. The decisions companies make today must account not only for cost and capacity, but for climate resilience. And that shift is accelerating.
In the short term, we’re already seeing the effects. Extreme heat is driving up energy costs and reducing productivity in the Southeast and Southwest. Hurricanes and flooding are disrupting operations along the Gulf Coast and Eastern Seaboard. Wildfire smoke is lowering air quality across the West, with real impacts on labor health and logistics. These aren’t hypothetical risks—they’re hitting bottom lines now. Some insurers are pulling out of high-risk areas altogether, making once-attractive locations increasingly hard to finance or insure.
Over the next decade, the trendlines are clear. Water scarcity will limit industrial growth in parts of Arizona, Nevada, and California. Coastal flooding will threaten low-lying facilities in Florida, Louisiana, and the Carolinas. Infrastructure stress—from power outages to flooded roads—will drive up operational risk and delay just-in-time supply chains.
As a result, we’re seeing a quiet migration in industrial site selection. Companies are beginning to move toward inland and elevated areas with reliable water, power, and labor. The upper Midwest—places like Grand Rapids, Columbus, and parts of Pennsylvania—is emerging as a climate-resilient manufacturing corridor. Conversely, we’re seeing a move away from regions facing repetitive climate events: the Gulf Coast, Central Valley, and fire-prone areas of the West.
So, what can be done?
For companies, climate risk modeling is now part of the due diligence process. Tools like NOAA’s flood mapping and FEMA’s resilience indexes are being used alongside workforce and cost data. Mitigation strategies include elevating buildings, investing in microgrids, securing long-term water contracts, and even dual-siting production.
For communities and economic developers, the challenge is to get ahead of the curve. That means marketing sites that are not just shovel-ready—but climate-ready. It means investing in infrastructure that can withstand future extremes, and helping companies access renewable energy, reliable utilities, and modern logistics. It also means being transparent – sharing the long-term risks and demonstrating how your region is planning for them.
The bottom line is this: climate change is no longer a background issue. It’s moving to the forefront of business strategy, reshaping site location in real time. The places that prepare—adaptively, creatively, and collaboratively—will not only survive but attract the next wave of resilient investment.