Building Business Resilience
Preparing for a changing climate makes good business sense. Experience in the Midlands has shown that extreme weather events have had devastating impacts on people’s ability to go about their daily activities. Many of the events to date have been flood related and we may see more of these events, or a wider variety of impacts, as our climate changes. Extreme weather has some serious consequences for business operations: not just for premises and staff, but also by disrupting business suppliers and distribution to customers.
Funded by the Environment Agency (Midlands Region), this project involves Climate East Midlands engaging businesses and business organisations to support them to adapt to the unavoidable impacts of climate change as well as inform internal Environment Agency staff of the key business support providers. The project supports businesses by using existing trusted business networks to deliver key messages and signposting to help.
Project detail
We are currently building on the achievements of a pilot phase (2011-12), which included:
- Mapping business networks
- Conducting a survey of businesses in the East Midlands and disseminating the findings. The survey findings are available here.
- Promoting climate change resilience messages directly to businesses at a business event and via e-newsletters
- Gaining support for an East Midlands climate resilience award.
In 2012-13 the project is focusing on developing more face-to-face business engagement activity in the East Midlands, through:
- Having conversations with businesses and business support organisations individually to learn about their experiences and potential support needs
- Speaking at business events to raise awareness of the implications of climate change for businesses and to promote the project
- Delivering in-depth climate change resilience workshops
- Researching and publishing good practice case studies to help bring the issues to life
- Updating the "Weathering the Storm" guide for businesses. Download the fully updated edition here
- Launching a Midlands Business Resilience Award, in partnership with Sustainability West Midlands, as part of Business in the Community's Local Impact Awards 2013.
Contact
If you would like more information about this project, please contact [email protected]
Useful links
Further information to help businesses become more resilient is available in our Adaptation Resource. This includes Climate East Midlands' guide for businesses "Weathering the Storm: Saving and making money in a changing climate".
The Environment Agency's Climate Ready programme, a support service to help businesses and other organisations to adapt to a changing climate.
