Supply Chain, Transportation, and Climate Change Variability: Co-Developing Products with the Retail Sector through the Industry Proving Grounds

Climate change is impacting every sector of the economy and is threatening the prosperity of the United States. Industries are working to adapt and build resilience, from how they source and move their goods to how they plan their infrastructure investments and operations and support climate vulnerable communities across the country. NOAA plays a crucial role in rapidly connecting industry to accessible, contextualized, and useful data to support its decision-making and protect billions of dollars in investment in the United States.

Through funding provided by the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI) is leading the Industry Proving Grounds (IPG), a multi-million dollar effort to radically improve the delivery and industry uptake of climate data. Through the IPG, NOAA is helping key sectors of the U.S. economy–architecture and engineering, re/insurance, and retail–make climate-smart investments and build resilience. By integrating users at every stage of the service delivery model, from identifying user needs to rapidly prototyping and launching new products, the IPG is iteratively co-developing capabilities industry is asking for.

The retail and supply chain sector is a complex, interconnected web that traces from sourcing and manufacturing through the global movement of goods and services to the delivery and distribution of products for consumers to purchase and use. Retailers and suppliers rely on accurate forecasting to plan their supply routes, manage warehousing, construct new infrastructure, and determine what goods need to be available for consumers. Understanding the way extreme weather events have historically impacted their operations is just as important as having contextualized information about the ways climate change will present new or more severe challenges than historically occurred. Through partnership with the Retail Industry Leaders’ Association, the IPG is working with major retailers across the country to design custom products tailored to the unique needs of the sector. This talk will explore considerations for engaging with the retail and supply chain sector, and discuss initial outcomes and products the IPG is developing.