Sustainability issues, and in particular climate change, are increasingly affecting organisation activities and performances. According to the World Economic Forum Global Risks Report 2024, the environmental risks continue to dominate the risks landscape. The most severe global environmental risks include extreme weather events, critical change to Earth systems, biodiversity loss and ecosystem collapse, natural resource shortages, and pollution.

The severity of environmental risks has made clear that companies have to enhance their resilience, which is typically understood as the capability of organizations to “retaining shape and maintaining core functionality” in face of shocks and adversities (Verreynne et al., 2023, p.1342).

Then, resilient organizations are those that effectively anticipate, prepare for, respond to, and adapt to challenging conditions, such as environmental risks, thereby ensuring their long-term sustainability and success. These organizations proactively identify and address shocks, challenges or disasters, in order to positively react, adjust and maintain functioning prior to, during, and following adversities.

This report illustrates the rationale and structure of a survey aimed at investigating the resilience of Italian firms to climate change. The survey aligns with the main objectives of the ‘Growing Resilient, Inclusive and Sustainable (GRINS)’ project, specifically Work Package 1.4, ‘Migliorare la produzione di valore dei territori supportando la sostenibilità del business’ (‘Improving territories’ value creation by supporting business sustainability’).

The questionnaire aims to collect data on the readiness level of Italian firms for climate change across the following areas of investigation: Risk perception; Green investment; Emissions; Sustainability reporting, committee and remuneration; Green finance; Environmental programs; Ownership and legal form; Biodiversity.

This questionnaire will allow us to assess the prevalence of different strategic postures among Italian SMEs and to identify trends in business sustainability within the pilot territories (Emilia Romagna, Piemonte, Veneto, Toscana, Lazio, Puglia). To this end, we will cluster SMEs' responses to climate risks, distinguishing among “wait-and-see,” “cautious,” “planner,” and “proactive” strategic behaviors. The second phase of the project will investigate firm-level attributes associated with the adoption of these distinct strategic behaviors.

The report is organized as follows: First, we will present the research context, framework, and conceptual framework. Next, we will describe the methodology. The subsequent sections will focus on each area of investigation. The full questionnaire and its glossary are included in the Appendix.