First Street

Today, First Street Foundation, announces a partnership with Allstate to integrate Risk Factor™ into the latest version of Allstate’s mobile app. This will allow Allstate’s customers to understand climate risks for their home, such as flooding, wildfire, extreme heat and severe wind.

“We’re proud to announce this new partnership with Allstate as it helps us further our reach and impact via a new medium,” said Matthew Eby, Founder and CEO of First Street Foundation. “Allowing Americans to not only understand their risk, but protect themselves with a risk-transfer product is core to our mission.”

Risk Factor’s integration into Allstate’s mobile app is a result of consumers’ growing interest in how natural hazards will impact their property, today and into the future.

“The Allstate mobile app offers a hotbed of innovation that’s redefining how people interact with an insurer,” said Michael Antognoli, mobile product director at Allstate. “We’re listening to our customers, and these updates give them more personalized value and control to protect what matters most.”

Learn more through the link: https://firststreet.org/press/press-release-allstate-reinforces-customer-protection-with-redesigned-mobile-app/

Allstate Reinforces Customer Protection With Redesigned Mobile App Allstate Reinforces Customer Protection With Redesigned Mobile App

Today, the Foundation is excited to announce that Risk Factor™ is the new integration of choice for Realtors Property Resource® (RPR®), a wholly-owned subsidiary of the NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS (NAR). RPR is the nation’s largest real estate property database exclusively for REALTORS®.

Risk Factor is a property-specific climate risk assessment tool. It will be featured within RPR’s “Additional Resources” section, providing REALTORS® with a seamless way to view risk analysis for any property. Each property listing allows agents and clients to better understand property-specific climate risk scores, including potential hazards such as flooding, hurricane wind, wildfires, and extreme heat.

Jeff Young, Chief Operating Officer and General Manager of RPR says, “Our integration with Risk Factor equips REALTORS® with an efficient access point to property-specific environmental risk data. This detailed information helps them deliver these insights to their clients, enabling informed real estate decisions based on clear, data-driven risk assessments."

“This new integration allows us to reach a broader audience with our risk assessment data models,” adds Matthew Eby, founder and CEO of First Street Foundation. “Having this information accessible to REALTORS® significantly empowers them in advising clients about potential hazards tied to certain properties and thereby allowing consumers to make well-informed decisions."

To learn more, visit First Street Foundation or sign up for its free climate risk assessment tool at Risk Factor. Read the full press release here: https://firststreet.org/press/press-release-rpr-integrates-with-risk-factor-to-provide-property-specific-climate-risk-assessments/

Today, First Street Foundation is excited to announce its first partnership with a major property and casualty insurance company, American Family Insurance. Through the partnership, American Family, a mutual insurance company based in Madison, Wisconsin, will make First Street’s property specific information for homes across the United States available to their exclusive agency force. American Family agents will have access to data from the First Street Foundation flood, wildfire, extreme heat, and future perils models to help customers and prospects better understand their property’s exposure over the course of their mortgage.

The Foundation’s CEO, Matthew Eby, explained that, “Properly insuring against risk means having a comprehensive understanding of the climate impacts to individual properties and how they will evolve over time with climate change” and “by providing property-specific climate risk assessments using cutting edge modeling techniques and best in class data, our models will enable American Family agents to help customers understand how to better protect their largest investments.”

Read the full press release here: https://firststreet.org/press/press-release-amfam-placeholder/. To learn more visit First Street Foundation or sign up for its free climate risk assessment tool at Risk Factor.

Thank you to those that were able to attend the webinar session to review the methodology behind the First Street Foundation Wind Model and the Wind Factor™ information and features that have now been incorporated into Risk Factor™. Get the recap here:

Wind Factor Overview Webinar A walk through of the methodology behind the First Street Foundation Wind Model and Wind Factor information and features available on RiskFactor.com

As with all of the climate hazard models developed by the First Street Foundation, these data are publicly available through the Risk Factor™ website to adhere to the Foundation’s nonprofit mission of making climate risk accessible, easy to understand, and actionable for citizens, government, and industry.

The First Street Foundation Wind Model is used to power Wind Factor™
A property's Wind Factor is an indicator of its risk to extreme wind exposure over the next thirty years. The model assigns each property a Wind Factor, ranging from 1 (minimal risk) to 10 (extreme risk). For every location, the likely exposure to extreme wind is calculated for today and 30 years into the future, and takes into account the local conditions such as the roughness of the landscape surrounding a property.

Learn more about how severe wind will impact your home or community by visiting https://riskfactor.com/

We want to say thank you to our valuable partners and data providers. We couldn’t have created The First Street Foundation Wind Model without you!

The model uses open science methodologies, open data provided by the federal government, state, and local governments, and builds upon synthetic hurricane tracks created by Dr. Kerry Emanuel’s Wind Risk Tech LLC, in order to assess hyper-local climate wind risk across the nation.

The Foundation has also partnered with Arup , a global consulting and engineering firm, to calculate how this exposure translates to property-specific impacts such as structural damages and downtime days.

View the methodology here: https://firststreet.org/research-lab/published-research/wind-simplified-methodology/

Learn more by joining the webinar tomorrow at noon! https://firststreet.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_9uYy-wAjSAOJYO53m4yH-A

Today First Street Foundation published “The 7th National Risk Assessment: Worsening Winds”, a first of its kind analysis of the risks posed by exposure to hurricane wind, and how it will change over the next 30 years.

The model finds that over 13.4 million properties will be exposed to tropical cyclones in 30 years that are not currently. This increasing exposure is due the greater proportion of hurricanes that are expected to reach major hurricane status (Category 3-5 on the Saffir-Simpson Scale) today and into the future, and the greater likelihood that storms will track further northward along the US East Coast.

4 key findings emerge from this report:

1. Hurricanes are tracking further northward.
2. The largest increase in maximum wind speeds will impact states in the Mid-Atlantic.
3. Increased wind speeds put billions of dollars at risk annually in the South.
4. Florida accounts for over 70% of the entire Nation’s risk.

View the report: https://firststreet.org/research-lab/published-research/article-highlights-from-worsening-winds/

Learn more by joining the webinar tomorrow at noon! https://firststreet.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_9uYy-wAjSAOJYO53m4yH-A

Highlights From The report assesses severe wind risk from hurricanes and tropical storms across the United States.

We're excited to announce Wind Factor™ is coming soon!

Wind Factor™ is based on the peer-reviewed and open source First Street Foundation Wind Model (FSFWM) and showcases a property’s past, present, and future risk from hurricanes, tornadoes and severe storms.

Join our Founder Matthew Eby and our Chief Data Officer Ed Kearns on February 28th as they review the methodology used to develop Wind Factor, the high level findings in our soon to be released "Worsening Winds" report and walk through the Wind Factor experience and features on RiskFactor.com.

Reserve your spot here: https://firststreet.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_9uYy-wAjSAOJYO53m4yH-A

We're excited to share the new report in the journal Nature Climate Change we co-authored along with researchers from Environmental Defense Fund, Resources for the Future, the Federal Reserve, and several academic institutions.

The study examines the potential cost of increased and unaccounted-for flood risk in the U.S. real estate market. It found that the housing market is overvalued by US$121–US$237 billion and that low-income households are at greater risk and stand to lose up to 10% of their home value.

Read the full report here: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41558-023-01594-8

Chief Data Officer Dr. Ed Kearns speak to Colorado Public Radio on the anniversary of the Marshall Fire about how homeowners, businesses and communities can use Risk Factor (riskfactor.com) to understand their risk from wildfire, heat, and flooding today, and how it's changing due to a changing climate. Listen here: https://www.cpr.org/show-segment/this-website-estimates-the-fire-flood-and-heat-risk-at-your-house/

This website estimates the fire, flood and heat risk at your house The Marshall fire made a lot of Coloradans think about how vulnerable our homes and businesses are to extreme weather.

First Street Foundation's property specific, climate adjusted, aggregated climate risk data has been integrated within both the White House Council on Environmental Quality Climate and Economic Justice Screening Tool and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency EJScreen platforms.

“Partnering with both the EPA and CEQ to integrate our data into their tools will ensure federal agencies have a clear picture of the states, communities, and neighborhoods most directly impacted by climate risk today and how that risk will change over time, informing future policies related to construction and infrastructure investments, driving critical resources precisely to where they’re needed most,” said Dr. Ed Kearns, Chief Data Officer at First Street Foundation. “CEJST and EJScreen provide First Street Foundation with additional public outlets to ensure climate risk data is accessible, easy to understand and actionable for individuals, governments, and communities.”

First Street Foundation Climate Risk Data Now on White House and EPA Online Climate Risk Tools Data will help inform effective planning on climate risk today based on the severity of climate risk

Yesterday’s launch of Risk Factor Pro furthers the First Street Foundation’s mission to make climate risk accessible, easy to understand, and actionable for citizens, government, and industry. Whether you’re a first time home buyer or an institutional investor with an expansive real estate portfolio, Pro brings together the leading science, the best engineering, and an unbeatable user interface to empower you with the data needed to truly understand and address the impact of climate on your assets.

Create an individual account on Risk Factor Pro today for a one year free trial where you’ll gain access to the full suite of Risk Factor Pro tools, maps, analysis, and customizations for any one property of your choice.

https://riskfactor.com/register

Today we are celebrating the launch of Risk Factor Pro, the most comprehensive property specific climate risk data set in existence. Users can now customize building characteristics, ensuring the most accurate, building specific climate risk assessment available anywhere. Risk Factor Pro also allows you to visualize the exact areas of climate risk exposure with access to unparalleled 3 meter resolution interactive maps to explore multiple flood, wildfire, and extreme heat scenarios.

Signing up for Risk Factor Pro (www.riskfactor.com/register) and creating an individual account includes a free trial. Users gain access to the full suite of Risk Factor Pro tools, maps, analysis, and customizations by claiming any individual property of their choosing for free access for a year.

https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/first-street-foundations-risk-factor-pro-provides-industry-standard-data-analysis-and-insight-to-every-american-homeowner-301669466.html?tc=eml_cleartime

First Street Foundation's Risk Factor Pro Provides Industry Standard Data, Analysis, and Insight to Every American Homeowner /PRNewswire/ -- Research and technology nonprofit First Street Foundation today released Risk Factor Pro to all users, offering American consumers in-depth...

Today we're excited to announce our latest partnership with Fannie Mae who will use our high resolution, property parcel level, climate adjusted risk data for internal research related to climate impacts on the mortgage market. Our data, tools, and analysis will help them gain critical insights into the assessment of mitigating actions against the potential impact of climate perils on homeowners and renters across the country.

First Street Foundation Partners with Fannie Mae to Deliver Climate Risk Insights First Street Foundation Partners with Fannie Mae to Deliver Climate Risk Insights

We're excited to announce we're launching Risk Factor Pro™ - a revolution in property specific, climate risk intelligence that helps homeowners, buyers, sellers, investors, and brokers make better decisions when buying, selling, evaluating real estate, and mitigating risk.

Join our Founder Matthew Eby and our Chief Data Officer Ed Kearns to see the future of climate risk intelligence. This will teach you how to utilize the first of its kind climate data, and demo the interactive features that Risk Factor Pro has to offer. Join the webinar on November 3rd to get a sneak peak of the tool before it launches on November 7th!

PRO HIGHLIGHTS:
- The only climate risk tool built from the property up by leveraging building specific characteristics
- Interactive maps that help visually identify climate risk with multiple scenarios
- Adjustable risk scenarios and building characteristics to calculate damages and downtime
- View, sort, and filter a property's historic events and nearby infrastructure risk on a map

Reserve your spot here: https://firststreet.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_gq9SMvn0R7S49cRPGhOXVg

Today, we're announcing a partnership with the Urban Land Institute whose 46,000 members were given access to our upcoming Risk Factor Pro platform during their 2022 Fall Meeting in Dallas, TX. Risk Factor Pro was informed by numerous in-depth interviews with their members who are actively working to assess and address climate risk.

ULI members currently have exclusive access to the tool, which will be publicly available for all commercial and private users on November 7th.

Risk Factor Pro includes advanced analysis of the impact of flood, wildfire, and extreme heat, along with estimates of potential damage and rebuilding costs, building emissions, visual graphics at varying levels of geography, interactive maps, and more. The tool also allows users to customize building characteristics, ensuring an accurate, property specific and highly granular climate risk assessment; a feature developed with our partners ant the global engineering and consulting firm Arup.

If you're attending the in be sure to hear our chief data officer, Dr. Ed Kearns take part in the ULI Coastal Forum's panel discussions on intergovernmental coordination for coastal flood risk on Tuesday morning, October 25th.

Later that day, he'll also be joining Brittany A. Ryan of Nuveen, a TIAA company, to discuss how climate tech can help reduce risk to assets, and highlighting how First Street Foundation has incorporated ULI Members' specialized information needs into our new Risk Factor Pro climate risk platform.

First Street Foundation Debuts Risk Factor Pro; Informed by the Urban Land Institute First Street Foundation launches Risk Factor Pro, informed by the Urban Land Institute

Out now, UNDERSTANDING DISASTER INSURANCE by First Street Foundation advisory board member & Defense Fund's Dr. Carolyn Kousky demystifies how disaster insurance markets work, and clearly explains how they can change to reflect new pressures from climate change. Available in bookstores everywhere!

The frequency and intensity of natural disasters is on the rise. Insurance, an often confusing tool, will be critical to successfully emerging from the effects of these crises. UNDERSTANDING DISASTER INSURANCE is an accessible intro to this complex topic.

Pick up your copy today!

Understanding Disaster Insurance https://www.amazon.com/o/ASIN/1642832251/https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/understanding-disaster-insurance-carolyn-kousky…https://www.google.com/books/edition/Understanding_Disaster_Insurance/Ir0YzwEACA…https://bookshop.org/books/understanding-disaster-insurance-new-tools-for-a-more… Understan...

Yesterday, our Chief Data Officer Dr. Ed Kearns was officially named to the Climate-related Financial Risk Advisory Committee, established this year by the Financial Stability Oversight Council (FSOC) of the U.S. Department of the Treasury as announced in its 2021 Report on Climate-Related Financial Risk.

The committee will advise FSOC on climate-related financial risks and support the Treasury Department in its analysis of the economic and financial impacts of climate related hazards to American homes, infrastructure, and businesses.

Dr. Kearns brings a long background in both climate data analysis and public service to his position on the committee, having previously served as Chief Data Officer for the U.S. Department of Commerce and as NOAA's first Chief Data Officer. He will lend his experience and expertise in designing and leveraging First Street Foundation’s peer reviewed, property-specific, climate-adjusted analyses of flood, wildfire, and extreme heat risk for residential and commercial properties across the United States to the committee, helping to guide policy and financial risk mitigation efforts.

Congratulations Dr. Kearns!