From Heat Waves to Heat Maps: Building Climate Resilience for a National Pizza Chain

The Challenge 

A national pizza chain faced a need to understand how changing environmental conditions would impact their operations across North America and the UK. The company sought to analyze physical climate risk across dozens of its locations, using the findings to inform strategic facility planning and financial reporting. 

The Solution 

Resilient Analytics partnered with the pizza chain to conduct an extensive climate scenario analysis using the latest Coupled Model Intercomparison Project 6 (CMIP6) climate model projection dataset. The team evaluated 69 locations across eight critical climate risk categories: extreme heat, increased cooling requirements, extreme precipitation, drought, wildfire and coastal flooding. 

The analysis quantified projected impacts through 2035 and 2055, enabling the chain to understand both near-term and long-term vulnerabilities. Each location received a discrete risk score, revealing that extreme precipitation, extreme heat and wildfire would become the primary drivers of risk, with ten locations reaching high-risk status by 2055. 

The Impact

Resilient Analytics delivered actionable intelligence on specific operational vulnerabilities. The analysis identified locations where worker productivity could decline due to heat stress, facilities requiring cooling system upgrades, and equipment susceptible to failure in extreme conditions.  

The pizza chain now possesses data-driven insights to prioritize infrastructure investments, optimize facility locations and build operational resilience.