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Tailwind Futures invests in technologies that help corporations futureproof the infrastructure, workforce, and supply chain of today and tomorrow.
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Maladaptation Diligence Toolkit
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We’re excited to announce our new toolkit to help investors identify the most effective and impactful A&R solutions and get them to the people and communities who need them most.
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The relentless heatwaves from the past weeks have made the need for cooling technologies impossible to ignore. A range of innovative solutions are emerging to reduce health impacts and disruptions during heat waves and other extreme events. However, well-intended adaptation efforts can sometimes have unintended negative consequences.
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Take these two examples:
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Innovative wearable cooling technology can help outdoor workers, emergency responders and others enduring high temperatures outside. However, a wearable cooling solution for workers in extreme heat that’s tested and designed only on men could lead to ineffective and dangerous results for female workers.
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Portable A/C units added haphazardly to historic buildings reduce indoor heat risk for residents, but waste heat raises ambient temperatures in surrounding neighborhoods, worsening outdoor heat exposure for residents without A/C (the NASA map above visualizes the urban heat island effect).
These unintended negative outcomes, collectively known as ‘maladaptation’, have been widely documented in community development projects, but are not always top-of-mind for investors.
At Tailwind Futures, we believe technological innovation, used wisely, can play a critical role in enabling climate resilience. This new publication focuses on the ‘wisely’ part of this equation: given accelerating impacts of climate change driving the urgent and sometimes chaotic deployment of adaptation solutions, how can investors and founders identify and prevent or mitigate maladaptation risk in the solutions they’re bringing to market?
The Tailwind Futures Maladaptation Screening Toolkit helps investors understand the pros and cons of different adaptation solutions. Our goal is to help other investors (and ourselves!) take a broad lens to acknowledge systemic considerations that are key to ensuring adaptation and resilience activities withstand the test of time and support equitable outcomes.
Access the Maladaptation Diligence Toolkit [LINK] to read more about identifying and managing maladaptation risk and explore additional tools for integrating maladaptation considerations into due diligence and portfolio engagement. Reach out to engage with us on this topic.
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Join our Webinar
Next Thursday July 16th at 9am PT / 12pm ET, we’ll unpack the key messages in the Maladaptation Primer and walk through how this can be integrated into investment diligence and portfolio engagement. Bring your questions and join an interactive webinar with the lead authors of the toolkit, Brooke Zhang and Katie MacDonald.
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Register for the Webinar
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Join Us at Pacific Northwest Climate Week
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Wednesday, July 15, at the Geocaching HQ in Seattle from 5:30 PM – 7:30 PM
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Next week Tailwind’s Natalie Ambrosio Preudhomme will speak on the panel “Building Community Water Resilience,” alongside leading voices from climate science, conservation, resilience planning, and technology. If you’ll be in Seattle during PNW Climate Week and are excited to discuss innovative solutions to water challenges, register below to join the event on Wednesday July 15 at 5:30pm.
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Register
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Tailwind’s Arindam Bhattacharya and Brooke Zhang will also be in Seattle for the week.
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What We’re Reading
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Heat has been on the front-page of media globally, and top of mind for people across Europe, North America and Asia. “Extreme heat cascades – in short order it can move from discomfort and cancellation of events to acute health problems – even death, grid failures, damage to natural and built infrastructure, and increased social inequities,” Jamil Wyne writes in a nice round-up article in Forbes on extreme heat impacts and solutions.
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This new decision-support tool launched by HERA during Climate Action Week estimates the impacts of extreme heat on economic output and mortality in 11,408 cities across 190 countries and examines how potential adaptation options could reduce these detrimental impacts. For example, in Paris, France which is under severe heat advisories this week, each $1 invested is expected to return $2.29 in health and economic benefits, with the breakdown of the adaptation options shown above. The tool can inform evidence-based planning and policy-making focused on cost effective interventions for extreme heat, and is accompanied by the companion report Counting the Cost of Heat: The Case for Urgent Solutions for Cities.
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It finds that “under a 4°C global warming scenario, increased levels of extreme heat in the EU and UK are projected to boost transport operation and maintenance costs by €4.8 billion.” While these hazards pose major risks to asset integrity, with associated community and business disruptions, this also highlights the massive need and associated market opportunity for innovative solutions.
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Accelerators, Fellowships & Prizes
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Two InsurTech NY startup programs: InsurTech Match and MGA Lab applications are about to close! InsurTech Match provides free matchmaking for startups ready to meet carriers, brokers, investors, and potential partners. MGA Lab is built to support teams launching, expanding, or modernizing MGA models. Apply by July 10, 2026.
Whittington Ventures and Breakthrough Energy have opened applications for the Weston Breakthrough Fellows, a new program to support Canadian innovators in climate technology, starting with agriculture. They are looking for “innovations at the transition point between research and commercialization — where the right support can turn a breakthrough idea into a venture-ready company.” Apply by July 12, 2026.
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Job Openings at Our Portfolio Companies
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Share a Market Update
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