We offer tarpaulins made from multi-layered material with sewn-in hard foam in the area of the hood, roof, and trunk to mitigate falling ice/hail on the vehicle – this is just one of the ads that are targeted on online platforms bombarding vehicle owners who do not have a garage. Whether it was discovered by some version of artificial intelligence or not, the fact is that ads pop up with every orange or red warning from meteorologists about possible severe weather.
Without entering into discussions about whether and how much humanity is to blame for global warming and its consequences, this scorching long summer with extreme heat and frequent storms leaves even the most ardent ‘flat-earthers’ indifferent. The climate neutrality movement has gained momentum. When it comes to business, solar panels have, for example, become standard on the roofs of more serious companies. Reporting on climate neutrality is slowly descending from large to smaller companies. The media has extensively covered this part of the story.
Opportunity for Gorski kotar
This is commendable. The world needs to be changed for the better. But entrepreneurs, managers, and consumers also need to act in the given circumstances. So, the increasingly important question is how to adapt the range of products and services to the new circumstances. Which will not return to the old overnight. As entertainers would say, the show must go on. Entrepreneurial projects that will only focus on meeting neutrality criteria will be at risk of being threatened by changing customer demand that competitors will recognize and adapt to more quickly, officially called ‘adaptation to the effects of climate change‘.
Manufacturers of automotive tarpaulins who sew thicker layers of cushioning foam are not the only ones. Far-sighted developers are already thinking about building apartment complexes and villas in Gorski kotar and Lika, where nighttime temperatures are not 25, but a tolerable 19 degrees. When the team already loves to swim in pools rather than in the sea, which is fifty meters away from the villa, then a pool in the forest of Gorski kotar is equally attractive. Honest stories from those who, according to old habits, decided to spend the summer in weekend houses or apartments by the sea suggest that in a few years, the price of such properties will start to fall due to climate reasons.
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When it comes to buildings, the dilemma arises whether to build houses with traditional sloped roofs covered with tiles in northern Croatia and Slavonia in the future. Every storm destroys dozens of such roofs. If the tiles are properly installed and the wind does not carry them away, increasingly larger balls of ice severely damage them. So, in the future, homeowners with flat roofs will fare better. Without tiles. It may seem like an exaggeration at this moment, but as it stands, insurers could have different premiums for houses with tiles and those without.
Some local communities have started implementing projects that increase resilience to climate change. Extreme amounts of rain that fall more frequently cause flash floods. There are already specialized consulting firms that, in collaboration with specialized contractors, offer solutions. For example, a rain garden project has been implemented in Pula, actually infiltration systems ‘that use natural structures to protect against flooding in case of heavy rains and simultaneously relieve mixed sanitary drainage systems and recharge groundwater’.
Pool and cistern
Business opportunities are therefore not only in meeting the conditions for reducing greenhouse gases. There are equally, if not more, in the demand for adaptation to climate change. The imagination that could become standard knows no bounds.
About ten days ago, a major scandal erupted when it was reported that the CEO and prominent HDZ member Nediljko Dujić, after a fire threatened his house, requested that a fire truck be parked in his yard. Interior Minister Božinović quickly denied such information, and fire commanders on the ground seem to have remained silent due to command responsibility. Of course, it is ethically and politically unacceptable to demand help out of turn. But with a little imagination, it could be imagined that in a few years, advertisements for renting villas and apartments will include information that ‘the property also has its own fire cistern’. So, it would be wise for manufacturers of such devices to start thinking about designing offers not only for fire departments but also for renters in Dalmatia.
