The Understory | Issue No. 2
By BeechTree Search
Dear friends,
We're pleased to share the second edition of our newsletter! We have been heads down the last few months building out teams for our clients, attending meetings and conferences, and getting a lot of love for the BeechTree Owls (see below).
Here, we'd like to share a few timely takeaways on the current state of the climate sector as it pivots into its next era.
On the road: Insights from the 2026 spring conference circuit
Over the past six weeks, we attended three conferences that, taken together, offered a useful cross-section of where the climate sector is and where it's heading.
Carbon Unbound: The hard questions in carbon removal
There are a lot of questions facing the nascent commercial-scale carbon removal sector. How do you execute what is effectively one of the most complicated, expensive, and important cleanups in human history -- with emerging tech, an uncertain market, chaotic policy dynamics, and the loss of its single largest buyer? Trails are being blazed, but they are not yet cleared. There was a range of innovation on display, but without a reliable buyer base to match the ambition of what's coming online, many of these solutions are still searching for a market that can sustain them.
ClimateTech Connect: The operational reality of climate risk
The opening keynote set the tone. Rick Keegan, Enterprise Chief Underwriting Officer at Travelers, one of the largest property and casualty insurers in the United States, was clear about his approach. He is surrounding himself with climate scientists. This choice is not ESG-related, but foundational to the business. Nuts and bolts. This way of thinking was the consensus both on the panels and the hallways conversations that followed. What we observed at ClimateTech Connect was financial and insurance sector leaders arriving at something city managers and adaptation practitioners have understood for years: the downside risk is real, it is quantifiable, and managing it requires reliable data and innovative technology.
GARI Summit: The unavoidable opportunity
If ClimateTech Connect was about risk, GARI was about opportunity. The planet is unhealthy, but markets still function as markets. Capital is flowing toward the businesses that a more climate-exposed world will depend on. Adaptation is increasingly being viewed not as a hedge against the worst but as a source of long-term economic opportunity, operational resilience, and competitive advantage.
The throughline across all three events
The organizations in these rooms -- investors, operators, risk managers, technical leads -- are done waiting for policy consensus to tell them what to do. They're building, staffing, and pricing risk that, as one GARI participant put it, is among the most predictable variables a financial professional will ever encounter. More so than geopolitics, key technology, and even interest rates.
Getting smart on climate is, at its core, a people problem. The data requirements, the technical complexity, the pace of change -- none of it is navigable without the right senior and technical leaders in place. The community is increasingly sophisticated and increasingly well-capitalized. The talent infrastructure hasn't kept pace.
That's the gap we intend to help close.
What we’re working on
A few things in progress that you can expect to see in future issues:
A labor market analysis of the climate sector: What the current talent landscape actually looks like, where demand is concentrating, and what organizations should know before they start a search.
A close look at critical minerals workforce needs: One of the most technically complex and least-served talent markets in the climate space. We've been watching it closely and will share an analysis + “how-to” imminently.
A piece on what physical climate risk actually demands of corporate leadership: And why adaptation is big business -- the layered effects of climate change and geopolitical events will affect organizations of all stripes.
Rewilding updates:
HQ’s Wildflower Meadow is emerging with pollinators increasingly taking note of butterfly weed, lance leaf coreopsis, black-eyed Susan, shrubby St. John’s root, foxglove beardtongue, rattlesnake master, and much more!
We’d be remiss not to thank everyone for the encouragement and love our CEO received for posting about the Eastern Screech Owl boxes he builds and the residents' photographs behind his desk (post here). A bonus pic for Understory subscribers!
An Eastern Screech Owl, peering moodily at our CEO from the comfort of its nest box.
As always, if you're navigating a senior climate or environment hire, or you know someone who is, we're easy to reach.
Daniel Abrahams
BeechTree Search
[email protected]
BeechTree is an executive search and advisory firm specializing in senior technical and leadership roles across climate, environment, and critical minerals. Founded by practitioners.