When it comes to climate change, companies and investors aliketend to focus on reducing greenhouse gas emissions. But businessesincreasingly face physical risks from global warming as well.

“It's not just companies with oil rigs and smoke stacks,” saysRebecca Henson, senior sustainability analyst with CalvertInvestments. “It's any business with operations.” The risks rangefrom floods damaging facilities to droughts threatening theavailability of raw materials, although experts shy away fromattributing specific weather events to globalwarming.

Consider this: In part because of extreme weather events,economic and insurance losses set records last year, with more than$148 billion in overall losses, according to Ceres, a nonprofitthat works with businesses on sustainability issues. Such lossesare a matter of particular concern now that the Securities andExchange Commission requires companies to disclose their risks fromclimate change.

The answer for companies is to find ways to protect their assetsagainst such risks. Businesses tend to face industry-specificthreats, so their approaches often differ. Here's a look at whatcompanies in three sectors are doing.

Coca-Cola Co.

For food and beverage manufacturers, perhaps the biggestissue relates to the unpredictability of the water supply. A severedrought could deplete the available supply. In other instances, thequality of water might be affected.

Greg Koch, managing director of global water stewardship forCoca Cola Co., points to 2009, when historic flooding in theSoutheast U.S. knocked out Nashville's municipal water treatmentcenter. “Our plant was shut down for two weeks,” says Koch,pictured at right.

About five years ago, the Atlanta-based company launched a majoreffort to address these threats. In 2008, working with its almost300 bottlers, which manage about 900 plants, Coca-Cola mandatedthat each facility form cross-functional teams to put togetherwater protection plans addressing specific problems in their area.And in 2004, it launched an effort with its bottlers to develop anew “water stewardship strategy.”

One part of the strategy focuses on plant performance, mandatingthat all water be cleaned, even when not required by law, toprotect against poor quality, and that facilities boost efficiencyby 20% by this year. Other parts include studying watershedvulnerability and coming up with protection plans, particularly indeveloping nations.

National Grid

There are a myriad of risks to power companies, rangingfrom a stepped up need for electricity during heat waves to damageto generation, transmission and distribution facilities as a resultof storm surges and flooding. For that reason, “we're taking arobust look at all of our assets,” says Walter Fromm, a manager atU.K.-based National Grid, which operates in the Northeastern U.S.and the U.K. Fromm is based in Waltham, Mass.

After historic flooding in New England in 2010, the companylaunched an in-depth study of electric substations in Rhode Islandto assess their risks from flooding, especially in a so-called100-year flood plain. Now, the company is considering takingsteps such as relocating substations from low-lying areas to higherground and placing others on stilts, says Fromm, pictured atright.

The company also tested its liquefied natural gas facilities fortheir ability to withstand coastal storm surges or high winds; whennecessary, it retrofitted those plants, as well. And it started a“water intrusion” program to replace underground pipes deemedunable to withstand flooding. Similar work has been done in otherparts of New England and in the U.K.

Separately, National Grid mandated two years ago that all newprojects be submitted to a senior level committee for review—andthat they include plans for how to include ways to adapt to climatechange.

Swiss Re

Insurers and reinsurers pay for the losses experienced bythe businesses and organizations they cover. Perhaps theenterprises with the most at stake are reinsurers and, notsurprisingly, they're the players that have been most active inaddressing risks, according to Ceres.

“These climate shocks are fundamentally disturbing the businessof our end clients, whether they're corporations, insurancecompanies or governments,” says Nikhil da Victoria Lobo, seniorvice president of global partnerships of Zurich-based Swiss Re,pictured at right.

Over the past five years, Swiss Re has stepped up its work withmunicipalities and corporations, advising them on how to map outtheir risks and analyze the costs and benefits of variousstrategies. Example: examining the pros and cons of building a highseawall in an area deemed prone to excessive flooding. If the riskcan't be reduced sufficiently, the next step would be toinvestigate buying weather-indexed insurance that helps protectagainst losses. In addition, Swiss Re is doing everything fromselling catastrophe bonds to offering new types of weatherinsurance to farmers in Ethiopia.