What can businesses do to help tackle climate change

The climate crisis is unequivocally one of the most pressing issues of our time, where the aftermath from extreme weather patterns to rising sea levels, impact every aspect of our lives. The 2024 Global Water Monitor Report produced by an international team of researchers shows the world broke new temperature records while precipitation extremes increased. Water-related disasters caused extensive impacts, with climate change contributing to the severity of floods, droughts, and cyclones.

The outlook for 2025 shows increased risks. Tackling this crisis is not just the responsibility of governments, but all types of businesses irrespective of size, sector and location. This challenge needs joined up thinking to find the much-needed solutions. Businesses hold a significant role in reducing climate change by investing in sustainable practices and reducing their carbon footprint. The targets set by governments will never be achieved if businesses don’t move towards them and it is imperative that all businesses play their part.

There is no one-size-fits-all tactic to deal with climate change. Every company’s approach will depend on its particular venture and needs to be integrated with its overall business strategy. This means every business needs to evaluate its vulnerability to climate-related effects such as regional shifts in the availability of energy and water, the reliability of infrastructures and supply chains, and the rise of infectious diseases. Business leaders will need to assess these risks and decide how to manage its operations, which will need to include initiatives to mitigate climate-related costs and risks in the value chain. Business leaders must start to think differently – treat carbon emissions as costly, start to assess and reduce their vulnerability to climate-related environmental, and economic shocks. Every company needs to get these basics right in order to operate effectively.

Implementing best practices in managing climate-related costs is the minimum required to remain competitive. How companies respond in vulnerable regions that are the hardest hit by the climate crisis will affect the viability of the markets in those areas.

Climate extremes can destroy thriving business environments, including communities.

Therefore, those businesses that continue to treat the climate crisis only as a separate corporate social responsibility (CSR) issue, rather than a strategic business problem, will risk the greatest consequences. Companies will need to improve their future resilience in climate prone regions, and this means integrating their CSR commitments with their business strategy. In the coming decades, we will see more extreme droughts, storms, and flooding. These events will become security concerns for businesses when people are forced to flee, infrastructure is destroyed, ecosystems fail, agriculture is disrupted, economic volatility increases, and some regions become uninhabitable.

Thinking differently comes with benefits for those companies addressing climate change. They will find new opportunities to enhance their competitive positioning. They will create products exploiting climate-induced demand, by leading the restructuring of their industries to address climate issues more effectively. They will innovate in activities affected by climate change to produce a genuine competitive advantage. It could push businesses to develop partnerships with government, with their supply chain, and even with traditional competitors. By taking a leadership role in helping regions anticipate climate change and mitigate risk, these companies can advance their interests, building genuine goodwill in the communities where they operate. Businesses who are prepared to take the long view will build a stronger reputation as powerful change makers.

Business leaders must be courageous in betting on the long-term future that will benefit their companies the most. By considering the future they want, these businesses will make that future all the more likely. Of course, there will be some business leaders who may be nervous of acting on climate change, but they need to recognise that they are already exposed to climate risks, where doing nothing cannot continue – especially as the future won’t be much different from the present.

There is a compelling business case to take immediate action on climate change and it makes good business sense. Here are three reasons why you should get started:

• Companies with strong leadership on climate can strengthen their reputation with all their stakeholders (customers, suppliers, investors and regulators), and as a bonus reduce their exposure to climate risks.
• Taking bold climate action can help any business stay ahead of future policy changes and climate regulations.
• Companies that foster innovation in their organisations will attract engaged, talented staff who want to work for a business with strong values and retain employees. Now that’s a win!

Here are a few suggestions to start as a business:

• Track carbon emissions throughout your supply chain.
• Collaborate with carbon-neutral or carbon-negative suppliers.
• Reduce single-use plastics, which gradually turns into microplastics over time, polluting the environment and upsetting the balance of natural ecosystems. Promote the use of refillable water bottles at work and have jugs of water in meetings rather than bottled water.
• Go further to reducing waste and recycling.
• Switch to green energy suppliers.
• Buying credible carbon offsets by doing the research.

I shall leave you with this final thought, by becoming climate conscious and active as a business in order to tackle the climate crisis, you are building a resilient business for the future, which is not only part of your business legacy, but crucially your company’s climate legacy.

Written by Sangeeta Waldron.
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