As a heatwave affected millions in the U.S. this week, the Health Action Alliance held a webinar to discuss how heat impacts the workforce and what can be done to mitigate the health risk. The number of extremely hot days has increased in the past 50 years, and these high temps are more than just a number on a thermometer — they impact individuals and employers everywhere.

Continue reading for takeaways from this webinar, and watch the full recording here.

Panel Snapshot: The Business Case for Action

The World Health Organization and more than 200 medical journals recognize that climate impacts are humanity's biggest single health threat. The panel on Extreme Heat & Workforce Health sought to help employers understand that these health threats are ultimately workforce threats and present a growing risk to business productivity and health. 

The panel included:

• David Leathers, Program Director of the National Commission on Climate and Workforce Health, Health Action Alliance
• Hakon Mattson, Chief Sustainability Officer, Elevance Health
• Jeff Romine, Senior Researcher, Carelon Research
• Mónica Serrano, Principal and Founder, Adaptate 

Key Insights

Understand the scope. There are many ways that climate — including extreme heat, air quality, and unprecedented weather — impacts worker health, which can increase healthcare costs for the employee and the employer and lead to reduced productivity.

• 55% of workers, including 67% of Gen Z, say they already face moderate or higher climate-related health risks at work
• Weekly Emergency Department visits increased by at least 0.58% when there was one day hotter than 80 degrees Fahrenheit, which correlates to an extra $16 in healthcare costs per person each year, a Carelon Research study found

Work together. Extreme heat impacts many teams within an organization, and not always in the same way, so collaboration is crucial to developing an effective action plan.

• "You have to meet folks where they're at. You have to spend some time understanding them and listening to them and figuring out what's important to them and how they're seeing heat," Mónica Serrano, Principal and Founder of Adaptate, said.

Start early. Implementing anything new takes time, so begin discussions immediately—don't wait until the summer heat hits (again) to create a strategy.

Take-Away Tactics

1. Gather knowledge: Familiarize yourself with the studies on worker impact to build a business case at your company.
2. Build awareness: Pull together a team of employees affected by the heat. Through a roundtable, determine how heat affects all areas of your company and what's important to employees.
3. Think sustainably: An ideal heat mitigation solution (such as providing plastic water bottles or ice packs) shouldn't contribute to the long-term climate crisis.
4. Start small: Low-cost, high-impact strategies for outdoor workers include providing shade, hydration, and breaks.
5. Use what you have: For indoor workers, you can modify an existing EAP to focus on climate issues or recommend employees use their hybrid work days to avoid extreme weather.

Resource Roundup

If you want to learn more about building a strategy for addressing extreme heat at your company, these resources are a great place to start:

• Health Action Alliance | Managing Extreme Weather and Climate Risks at Worker: A Starter Guide for HR Leaders
• Health Action Alliance | Climate Health Cost Forecaster
• Health Action Alliance | Protecting Against Extreme Heat
• Health Action Alliance | Climate & Health: The Increasing Risks to Our People-Powered Economy
• American Industrial Hygiene Association | AIHA Heat Stress App

‍Mark Your Calendars

Join us for our next Summer Event Series on Extreme Heat & Workplace Health, where we will discuss how to navigate policy and preparedness at your company.

Extreme Heat & Workforce Health: Navigating Policy & Preparedness

📅 July 30, 2025

⏰ 1–2 p.m. EDT

🖥️ Virtual via Zoom

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The National Commission on Climate and Workforce Health is a group of business, health, and climate leaders who share a mission to protect workers from the health risks posed by extreme weather.

The Commission was created by the Health Action Alliance in partnership with Mercer and with strategic input from the CDC Foundation. Additional support for the initiative is being provided by Elevance Health and The Hartford. Learn more at ClimateHealthCommission.org.