Donald Johnson waited, the gavel raised, and as the bell rang, he banged it down firmly several times to wild cheers. It closed the day’s trading but was also Waterfront Properties’ first trading day. Johnson, the CEO, belonged to a group of young corporate executives who banked big on climate change. Nicknamed “The Hyenas of Wall Street”, they ran and invested in ventures deliberately designed to profit from climate change and its effects.

In the late 2010s, many doubted that climate change was real, but as the 2020s started with record breaking heat, frequent Category 5 hurricanes, widespread flooding, and nationwide droughts, some investors started to reject the prevailing ‘business as usual’ attitude. They gathered a group of seasoned, dynamic, and visionary executives and started to look at the intersection of climate change and business. Playing out ‘What if?’ scenarios across the full spectrum of industries, countries, and effects, they identified high impact areas that were underserved.

Some executives looked at opportunities that a hotter, and thus more chaotic, climate offered, others looked at capitalizing on future disasters.

In Waterfront Properties’ case, they specialized in identifying opportunities in the property market by combining climate change sea level models with geographical topological data. For each centigrade of warming, they plotted where the new beachfronts would be. Through special purpose funds, they then raised capital and bought up large swaths of less desirable properties, close to major cities and tourist destinations.

Johnson realized that the return on investment for Waterfront Properties’ ten funds (one for each degree Celsius of warming) was very long, maybe even too long, to attract sufficient capital. To counteract this, he merged with a SPAC, that allowed him fast and uncomplicated access to the NYSE’s seemingly endless amount of willing risk capital.

Today’s IPO made him and his initial backers ridiculously rich, while also proving that many critics who called these businesses immoral, gladly invested.

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In an uncertain and often scary future, we need to pro-actively shape what our role in that future will be. A matter of choice, not chance. Futureworld has deep capability sets spanning outside-in-research, scenario planning, corporate venturing and deal structuring, among others. Whether your business is looking to understand the mega forces (like climate change) shaping the future, design a compelling growth strategy based on specific scenarios, or create new businesses to thrive in adjacent and transformational playing fields, we are here to help. Contact Futureworld Principal Matt Lawlor or Mindbullets editor Doug Vining for more information.