
More frequent heavy rain events leading to flash floods are among the environmental resilience issues affecting communities and their employers. (Getty Images)
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – Leaders from several of Indiana’s largest employers and at nine cities across the Hoosier state are meeting to discuss how to better collaborate on resilience to climate change, through a federally funded project led by faculty at the Indiana University Kelley School of Business and the IU Environmental Resilience Institute.
As a result of a $25,000 grant from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, business and public officials will participate Feb. 25 in a virtual workshop about research-informed strategies for improving resources, information, and tools for collaborative climate planning among local governments and businesses.

Sarah Mincey
Nearly 40 participants will include representatives of the Indiana Chamber of Commerce, the Indiana Economic Development Corp., Berry Global, Cook Group/Cook Medical, Cummins Inc., Duke Energy, IU Health, Subaru of Indiana, Sweetwater and cities such as Indianapolis, Bloomington, South Bend, Fort Wayne, New Albany, Richmond, Terre Haute, Jasper, and Lafayette.
Sarah Mincey, managing director of the Environmental Resilience Institute and an associate clinical professor in the O’Neill School of Governmental and Environmental Affairs, said local governments and companies often have addressed these environmental issues separately.
“The issue here is essentially that local governments are doing their own planning and businesses are doing their own planning. What we’re finding is not much evidence that they’re working together,” said Mincey, who also directs IU’s Research and Teaching Preserve. “They really need to be planning together and we want to understand if they are, and if not, how to facilitate that.”

Kelly Eskew
At the core of the one-day workshop will be a discussion of the Environmental Resilience Institute Toolkit, which helps local governments across the Midwest prepare for climate change by providing information tailored to their communities. Organizers will demonstrate how ERIT can be useful for the private sector as well as in public-private collaboration.
The workshop will develop research-informed strategies for improving resources, information and tools for collaborative climate planning among local governments and businesses. IU will provide a final report including workshop materials, presentations, participant lists and an analysis of participants’ exit survey responses.
It also will be a networking opportunity for those in communities and businesses who want to work together more on sustainability and environmental resiliency and learn from each other.