The Business Case for Adaptation

Why are Fortune 500 companies still investing billions in climate resilience while staying publicly silent about it? Emilie Mazzacurati, Founding Partner at Tailwind Futures, didn't start in venture capital—she began in European public policy before pivoting to carbon markets and eventually climate adaptation. After selling her climate risk company 427 to Moody's in 2019, she recognized a critical gap: the innovation ecosystem wasn't supporting adaptation solutions. Her core thesis? "We don't have time to wait for a full cycle of this tiny company that's going to become very big in 10 years. We need the solutions in three years." Emilie argues that climate resilience has shifted from virtue signaling to business imperative. Corporations are still investing heavily in adaptation, just talking about it differently—focusing on economics, risk mitigation, and operational continuity rather than moral arguments. How is your business preparing for climate impacts that are already locked in? Emilie Mazzacurati is Founding Partner at Tailwind Futures, an investment and innovation platform accelerating climate adaptation and resilience solutions. Trained in political science and public policy, she began her career in European government before pivoting to climate after watching Al Gore's "An Inconvenient Truth" in 2006. She founded 427, one of the first companies translating climate models into business risk signals for corporations managing millions of asset locations. After selling 427 to Moody's in 2019, she helped integrate climate data into global financial analytics before co-founding Tailwind Futures with Katie McDonald. Emilie focuses on fast-tracking adaptation innovation through corporate partnerships, bridging the gap between early-stage climate tech and enterprise adoption. In This Episode: (00:00) Emilie's career journey from European policy to climate risk (10:06) Tailwind Futures and the adaptation investment landscape today (16:32) How corporations discuss climate investments amid political headwinds (19:51) Emerging resilience technologies and phase change material innovations (22:02) Closing remarks Share with someone who would enjoy this topic, like and

You can listen to The Business Case for Adaptation online on Radio and Podcast. Open the player on this page to stream the available audio.

The Business Case for Adaptation is an episode from Raising Your Antenna by Keith Zakheim.

This episode is 00:23:30 long.

This episode was published on Apr 8, 2026.

Yes. Use the heart button on the episode page to add it to your favorite episodes list.

Yes. This page shows related episodes from Raising Your Antenna when more episodes are available from the podcast feed.