Textile Insight

I n 2021 Phoenix became the first city in the country to publicly fund an Office of Heat Response and Mitigation, created to "fight the growing hazard of urban heat," cool the city to make living there more comfortable and share ideas and solutions with other governments and organizations when it comes to dealing with heat. Phoenix is not an outlier when it comes to heat; in the past two years many other urban and rural areas have experienced an increasing number of record-setting triple-digit tem- peratures. And now, the financial impact of this new heat reality is coming to light. A study conducted by the Center for American Progress (CAP) and Virginia Commonwealth University estimates that extreme heat will cost $1 billion in U.S. health care costs every summer. Another study, released in July by Atlantic Council's Adrienne Arsht-Rockefeller Foundation Resilience Center, reveals that extreme heat costs $100B annually in worker productivity losses, a number that's projected to reach $500B by 2050. In other words, the U.S is losing about 2.5 billion hours of work per year as a direct result of heat. Of course, outdoor workers suffer from super-hot temperatures, but it turns out the bigger effect on the U.S. economy is indoor workers; more people in the U.S. are employed indoors than outdoors in the States. For example, employees who work in textile factories built 40+ years ago may do so without air conditioning. "ere's a new study that shows when working in 90- degree heat, productivity drops 25 percent. And when workers are exposed to heat of over 100 degrees, their productivity drops 70 percent," states Coral Davenport, an energy and environmental policy reporter, with a focus on climate change, based in the New York Times's Washington bureau, who was interviewed in a recent episode of e Daily podcast about economic conse- quences of high heat. "Modernizing factories in general, and making the workplace safer and more ac- cessible, is an ongoing topic, but climate is being added to the equation," comments Allon Cohne, marketing director at Noble BioMaterials, who notes similarity to what's happening in sports, i.e., making sure ath- letes are hydrated and taking short water breaks, and happening in lifestyle behaviors, for example installing generators, venti- lators, and air filters. Says Cohne, "ere's more contingency planning for triple digit heat and flexibility in terms of response to extreme weather conditions." Talking Points from the Factory Floor 2023 has been a significant year of capital investment in Nester Hosiery facilities. e Mt. Airy, NC company has made significant modernizing updates in its manufacturing The Surprisingly High Cost of Extreme Weather on the Bottom Line. By Emily Walzer STRATEGIES / PRODUCTIVITY 50 • Textile Insight ~ Fall 2023 textileinsight.com Climate Control

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