Case Study: Company Prepares for Climate Risk Disclosure Compliance
Client Background
A national air medical services provider with over 3,000 employees and operations across the United States, delivering emergency air transport, critical-care response, and patient transfer services through a network of helicopter and fixed-wing aircraft bases.
The Situation
The client faced a regulatory and strategic challenge: complying with California’s Climate-Related Financial Risk Act (SB-261). This law requires US companies doing business in California with over $500 million in annual revenue to disclose their climate-related financial risks and mitigation efforts.
As an air medical operator with several California bases, the company needed to meet these disclosure requirements but lacked a formal climate risk framework. They had no systematic process to identify aviation-specific climate risks or assess their financial impact over time.
To comply with regulations and improve transparency with regulators, investors, and stakeholders, the company needed to develop a climate risk disclosure aligned with the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) recommendations.
The Solution & Results
Baker Tilly provided a comprehensive climate risk disclosure solution that:
- Conducted a TCFD-aligned gap assessment across all four pillars—Governance, Strategy, Risk Management, and Metrics & Targets—to establish baseline climate maturity and highlight areas for improvement.
- Facilitated cross-functional workshops with teams from operations, safety, finance, legal, HR, and IT to identify climate risks and opportunities specific to air medical services.
- Developed a comprehensive climate risk and opportunity register, evaluating each item’s likelihood, impact, and time horizon using a structured methodology.
- Performed geographic climate exposure analysis using industry-leading datasets to pinpoint bases vulnerable to heat, wildfires, water stress, and storm volatility.
- Delivered a complete TCFD disclosure report suitable for public release, detailing governance, strategic implications, risk management, and metrics development plans.
- Created a roadmap of future action steps for areas in early development, guiding the company on strengthening their climate risk reporting and understanding future financial impacts.
As a result, the client:
- Achieved compliance with California SB-261 by delivering their first TCFD-aligned climate-related financial risk disclosure.
- Enhanced transparency and strengthened credibility with regulators, investors, and other key stakeholders through a thorough and proactive climate risk assessment.
- Established a clear, strategic multi-year roadmap to advance climate capabilities, encompassing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions data collection aligned with the GHG Protocol, scenario analysis, and the formalization of climate governance responsibilities.
- Successfully transitioned from limited climate documentation to publishing a comprehensive, inaugural TCFD-aligned California Climate Risk Disclosure report—positioning the organization to meet evolving regulatory demands and build long-term operational resilience.
We’re Here to Help
For more information on climate risk readiness assessments, TCFD-aligned disclosure development, SB-261 and SB-253 compliance support, or integration of climate considerations into enterprise risk management, please contact your Baker Tilly professional.