Climate change poses severe risks to micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs), including damage to infrastructure, increased financial risks, regulatory uncertainties, market fluctuations and supply chain disruptions. Despite these risks, climate action often remains low on the agenda for small enterprises as it involves high upfront capital costs.

With increasing sustainability demands and economy-wide low carbon transitions, MSMEs will need to adopt climate-friendly practices or change business operations and products to stay competitive and protect livelihoods. This will require reskilling of workers and institutional support for MSMEs.

Download the RISE brochure here. 

Download

Resilient, Inclusive and Sustainable Enterprises (RISE) aims to help build the resilience and competitiveness of MSMEs in Chennai and Coimbatore automotive clusters in Tamil Nadu and the Surat textile cluster in Gujarat, while enabling an inclusive and just transition to a low carbon future.

By 2026, under RISE, WRI India will engage with MSMEs and local communities, industry associations and experts, skilling and financing agencies and local and national governments to support at least 1000 workers in 100 MSMEs to help them manage climate impacts, implement climate actions and acquire skills for better livelihoods.

The RISE initiative aims to achieve this through the following approaches:

Research

  • Identify climate-related vulnerabilities that may affect MSMEs and workers in two clusters and build their capacity to undertake recommended measures.
  • Assess the decarbonization potential of MSMEs and train them to adopt low-carbon interventions.
  • Identify and support the skilling and upskilling needs of MSMEs to sustain jobs and livelihoods.

Capacity Building

  • Use findings from our research to identify and develop capacity-building modules for entrepreneurs and workers, including women. These will include training workshops on sector-specific reskilling, climate-proofing and decarbonization.

Dialogue, Engagement and Outreach

  • Document MSME voices and case studies.
  • Share research findings, learnings and successes with MSMEs, state and national governments and business leaders through informational content, articles, infographics, videos and webinars.

Outcomes

  • Support at least 100 MSMEs and 1000 workers in building climate resilience in two MSME clusters, and train entrepreneurs and workers towards a just low carbon transition.
  • Help MSME associations, industry associations, and specific line ministries in state and central governments adopt processes and/or programs to build on the success stories of the project.
  • Contribute to an enhanced dialogue on building resilient livelihoods within MSMEs among industry and national and state governments.

About the CREST Initiative

Climate-Resilient Employees for a Sustainable Tomorrow (CREST) is a 5-year, $25 million career preparation and reskilling initiative by the Ares Foundation. CREST aims to advance workforce solutions that increase equitable access to high-opportunity, high-paying jobs in a growing green economy. The Ares Foundation has partnered with Jobs for the Future (JFF) and World Resources Institute (WRI) to execute on this initiative, with the intent to design and deliver scalable solutions in the US and India.

Articles:

Multimedia:

Media Mentions