First Street Expands Climate Modeling to Corporate and Infrastructure Risk

NEW YORK, NY – April 27, 2026 – First Street, the data science firm that brought climate risk scores to millions of American homes, has formally expanded its analytics to cover entire companies and complex infrastructure, a move aimed at giving institutional investors a long-sought tool to connect physical climate hazards directly to financial performance.

The announcement marks a significant evolution for the company, which built its reputation on property-level risk modeling. With the launch of two new modules, First Street is now positioning its data to flow from a single building's flood vulnerability all the way up to a corporation's balance sheet, impacting earnings, credit ratings, and valuations.

From Property Lines to Profit and Loss

For years, investors have struggled to quantify how a hurricane hitting a key supplier or a wildfire threatening a data center translates into material financial risk. First Street's expansion aims to close this structural gap with two new, interconnected offerings within its Enterprise Suite.

The Company Module is designed to trace the ripple effects of climate events across a corporation's entire operational footprint and supply chain. It quantifies how physical damage and downtime at specific sites—from factories to retail locations—can disrupt operations and ultimately impact a company's profit and loss statement. This gives equity and credit analysts a data-driven way to assess when and how physical climate exposure becomes financially material.

Complementing this is the Complex Assets Module, which extends the analysis beyond single properties to entire infrastructure systems. This includes transportation networks like railways and highways, sprawling industrial campuses, energy grids, and data centers. The module captures risk exposure across entire routes and parcels, allowing operators and investors to pinpoint the most vulnerable segments and prioritize capital for resilience investments more effectively.

"Earth Day increasingly reflects how climate risk is being integrated into financial decisions across the system," said Matthew Eby, CEO and Founder of First Street, in a statement. "Our expansion into companies and infrastructure builds on our foundation in real estate and aligns with how risk actually moves, from individual assets through to financial performance."

Building on a Foundation of Granular Data

First Street's ambitious expansion is built upon a nearly decade-long effort to model climate risk at the most granular level possible. The firm, which began as a research nonprofit, gained widespread recognition for its "Flood Factor," "Fire Factor," and "Heat Factor" scores, which are now integrated into major real estate platforms like Zillow and Redfin. This has made climate risk a tangible consideration for over 80% of American homebuyers.

The company's scientific credibility is rooted in its peer-reviewed, physics-based modeling approach. Instead of relying solely on historical loss data, its models simulate future conditions based on changing climate dynamics, quantifying the likelihood and severity of hazards for billions of properties worldwide.

This bottom-up methodology is what the firm hopes will set it apart as it enters the more complex corporate and infrastructure markets. Its existing client roster, which includes financial giants like Bank of America and Fannie Mae, as well as federal agencies like the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), provides a powerful launchpad. By already providing baseline data to a significant portion of the nation's largest banks, First Street has established a foothold in the very market it now aims to serve more deeply.

A Crowded Field in a High-Stakes Market

First Street is not entering an empty arena. The market for corporate climate risk analytics is rapidly growing, populated by established financial data powerhouses and specialized ESG firms. Competitors like MSCI, Moody's ESG Solutions (which acquired climate risk specialist Four Twenty Seven), and S&P Global Sustainable1 already offer sophisticated tools to help investors assess climate risk in their portfolios.

These firms provide extensive analysis on both physical risks and the "transition risks" associated with shifting to a low-carbon economy. The challenge for many investors, however, has been navigating the different, often opaque methodologies used by various providers.

"The challenge for investors has been the 'black box' nature of some models," noted one financial analyst focused on sustainable finance, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. "A transparent, physics-based approach that starts from the ground up could be a game-changer, but the key will be proving its accuracy and scalability across complex global supply chains."

First Street is betting that its reputation for scientific transparency and its asset-level foundation will be a key differentiator. By allowing users to drill down from a portfolio-level risk score to the specific asset driving that risk, the firm aims to provide a level of clarity and actionability that has been elusive.

The Regulatory Tailwinds Driving Demand

The timing of First Street's expansion is no accident. The move coincides with a powerful global push from regulators for greater transparency around climate-related financial risks. This regulatory pressure is transforming climate risk from a niche ESG concern into a core component of financial reporting and risk management.

In the United States, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has been finalizing rules that would mandate public companies to disclose their climate-related risks, including their exposure to physical hazards like floods and wildfires. While facing legal and political hurdles, the direction of travel is clear: companies will soon be required to quantify and report these exposures to their investors.

Globally, the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) has created a framework that is becoming the de facto international standard. First Street's new modules are designed to directly support the kind of granular analysis needed to meet these emerging disclosure requirements. The firm's existing partnerships with over 30 federal agencies to inform climate risk policy and regulation underscore its deep integration with this evolving landscape.

This shift creates an immense market opportunity. As disclosure becomes mandatory, the demand for robust, defensible, and decision-useful data will surge. By offering a tool that connects physical phenomena to the language of finance—dollars, downtime, and credit risk—First Street is providing a critical piece of plumbing for a financial system that is being fundamentally rewired by climate change. This allows asset managers, banks, and corporations not just to report on risk, but to actively manage it through more informed capital allocation and strategic planning for a more resilient future.