Weathering the Storm: How Resilient Businesses Can Adapt to Climate Change by Katie Pierce

Adapting to the effects of climate change requires resiliency, not just from governments and businesses, but also from individuals and their everyday commuting habits. It is the only way we can build a sustainable future while weathering the storm. For businesses, adapting to climate change goes beyond protecting the environment. It also means surviving and thriving in the future. 

In this article, we will discuss how resilient businesses can stand strong in the face of climate-related challenges. 

Why Resiliency Matters in Adapting to Climate Change

Resilience is crucial in adapting to the impacts of climate change. It means having the capacity to bounce back quickly when we're knocked down.  Resilience is necessary to withstand extreme weather events such as floods, droughts, and hurricanes, and to reduce the potential for long-term harm. Building resilience can also help mitigate the impacts of climate change in the long term. Investing in resilient infrastructure, such as green roofs and permeable pavements, can protect communities from flooding and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.  Resilience is not a luxury, it's a necessity if we want to adapt to the challenges that lie ahead. It is needed to create a more sustainable future for ourselves and future generations.

Risk Assessment and Management

In today's rapidly changing climate, a savvy business understands the imperative of risk assessments to confront potential environmental challenges. But it's not enough to simply check the box and move on. To truly fortify their resilience, a wise enterprise invests in analysing these risks with a discerning eye, prioritising them based on their potential impact. Only then can they craft effective risk management plans, ready to withstand even the most daunting of scenarios. Yet, it doesn't end there. A truly resilient business remains nimble, consistently updating its risk assessments as new data and insights come to light. This adaptability allows them to stay ahead of emerging risks, a crucial asset in today's ever-changing landscape.

Adaptation Planning

In the face of an ever-evolving climate, a resilient business recognises the need for targeted adaptation plans designed to suit the unique risks they face. These plans go beyond just identifying potential threats. Instead, they leverage specific changes to operations, infrastructure, and supply chains to reduce vulnerability and build enduring fortitude. With such foresight and agility, a savvy enterprise can not only weather the storm but thrive in the midst of uncertainty, carving out a path to sustainable success.

Diversification

A truly resilient business understands the importance of diversification - in operations, supply chains, and beyond. By broadening their horizons, they reduce their dependence on any single geographic region or resource, effectively insulating themselves from the impacts of climate change. This means looking for alternative sources of raw materials and energy or even exploring new markets altogether. Doing so not only mitigates risk but also sets a business up for sustained growth and prosperity. In today's ever-shifting landscape, a willingness to adapt and explore new horizons is not just smart business - it's essential for survival.

Innovation

A resilient business doesn't just rely on old strategies to weather the storm of climate change. Instead, they cultivate a culture of innovation - one that encourages employees to think outside the box and develop novel solutions to complex challenges. By embracing emerging technologies, business models, and approaches, such an enterprise stays ahead of the curve. They adapt to evolving conditions and identify new opportunities that arise as a result of climate change. Through a willingness to experiment and explore new frontiers, a forward-thinking business can not only survive but also thrive. In the process, transforming adversity into opportunity and charting a path to long-term success.

Collaboration

Resilient businesses don’t just go it alone - they understand the power of collaboration. By working hand-in-hand with other stakeholders - from governments and NGOs to local communities - a savvy enterprise can develop the effective strategies needed to tackle the long-term challenges of climate change. Fostering collaborative partnerships and engaging with relevant stakeholders allows a business to tap into valuable insights and support. In turn, this builds the resilience needed to thrive in an ever-changing world.

In short, the path to success isn't a solitary journey - it's a shared one. It’s built on the foundations of trust, partnership, and the willingness to work together towards a common goal.

Climate-Related Financial Disclosure

The disclosure of financial risks and opportunities related to climate change is known as climate-related financial disclosure. It is an essential tool for businesses to manage their exposure to climate change risks and identify opportunities for growth and innovation. Resilient businesses recognise the importance of climate-related financial disclosure as it helps identify and mitigate climate change risks. It also provides stakeholders with a better understanding of the company's exposure to climate change. Climate-related financial disclosure also helps companies demonstrate their commitment to sustainability and responsible environmental practices, attracting investment from environmentally conscious investors.

Summing Up

Climate change presents significant challenges for businesses of all sizes and industries. However, by building resilience, businesses can effectively adapt to these challenges and position themselves for long-term success. 

If you want to learn more about resiliency in business, contact QED.

Guest Author

Katie Pierce is a teacher-slash-writer who loves telling stories to an audience, whether it’s bored adults in front of a computer screen or a bunch of hyperactive 4-year-olds. Writing keeps her sane (most of the time) and allows her to enjoy some quiet time in the evening before she walks into a room of screaming kids (all of whom she loves dearly) the next morning.

Empowering your health journey

Estelle Giraud is a PhD scientist in population genetics who has become a commercial operator, founder and leader in biotech and frontier medicine @Illumina. Estelle has had to navigate the change and challenges that come with this journey and is both excited and scared by the rise of big data in healthcare and wellness. She is also passionate about creating a better healthcare system from the ground up, especially for individuals. She believes people don’t neatly fit in single boxes and that some of the most interesting insights about people and the world come from the unplanned intersections and she brings her authenticity and openness to the tough conversations about the hard problems we face.

Estelle believes we have the fundamental right to have agency over own bodies and our own health and that this can’t be layered in political, religious or any other way of thinking – it’s your own body, your own health journey and, as humans, we have the right over that along with the privacy that goes with it.

Trellis Health has the belief that health is rapidly changing. What we think about health data is rapidly changing – genetics, wearable’s, where people live and what people eat all impact on our health. At the same time we don’t have a good infrastructure for health data particularly in the US as there is no national infrastructure and people have their health data in dozens of different systems. This means that from a patient perspective there is little value in that health information. It doesn't serve you and allow you to manage and own your health. There are a lot of things you can talk about - AI and data driven medicine for example - but at the end of the day we need good health data on people and that data needs to impact on, and serve them.

Estelle’s company has been creating a platform, a health data hub, which starts with pregnancy. There are a couple of very specific reasons for starting at this point. At a high level pregnancy is a really unique time point in a person’s life where a lot of deep and broad measurements happen. It is the first interaction with the healthcare system and there is a lot of space for improving that user experience as well as the health outcomes – how do we decrease maternal and infant mortality at this intense time in a really data driven way.

The idea is that you own your own health data, cleanse that data and show it to the people who need to know so they can provide the healthcare you need for yourself on a global scale. People are more mobile these days and there are different systems in different countries. You can’t just assume people are going to be born, live and die in one system if we are going to have a mobile lifestyle it makes sense for all of our health information to come with us as we move through life. For example when you are on holiday and something happens to you. You can’t speak and your wishes or allergies are missed.  The mission of Trellis is to empower people to see and connect with their health and those two things are difficult to do. Health is an abstract thing. We don't think about it until we are sick and that's when it will help to have that data at your fingertips. It allows people to connect with it so we can own our health journey.

Estelle comes at this from a patient and a data science perspective. Health is not just about going to the doctor, having some blood tests and going home.  Its about mental health, diet, stress, sleep and community. All of these things impact our health and we’ve gone through the period where people would have one doctor who had seen their family for generations and had information about the whole family in their head. Today’s medical systems have been fractured into specialties and fragmented out – an app for mental health, seeing a specialist for something else - all different people and systems. People are slowly starting to realise that health needs to bring that all together and that to talk about truly managing your health it needs to be holistic.

There are a lot of inaccuracies in health data generally and this is difficult to fix without a level of transparency. With transparency people can see the data and start to have the conversation that something isn’t right so lets try to correct it. To realise precision medicine, we need vast amounts of clean, accurate data – if its full of errors we can’t develop the algorithms to do that. This is of course some of the most powerful data you can have on a person and is even more valuable than financial data which is why the privacy and ethics of this space is so important.

Trellis work automatically though API’s. The US has massive problems with health data and has built exchange networks that operate within the hospitals. This means that when users sign up to the platform they don't need to call every single doctor they've had. They authorise Trellis and then they can collect and build a longitudinal health record for them automatically. The revenue model is that of a consumer paid subscription. They don't take money from insurance companies which simplifies and strips away lots of ulterior incentives. They work with a lot of younger Millennial and Gen Z women who have the idea that if it’s free you are the product. This comes from platforms such as Facebook that monetise people. Trellis makes it really clear that you pay a subscription fee and that's how they make money. It’s your data and they don’t sell it to anybody. They don't make money any other way - it’s all about you and the value you get from your health data.

Organisational resilience comes from this consumer model because it gives independence in the market place. It sounds simple but simple is always best, particularly in healthcare. If you get from where you start profitability, the more organisational resilience you’ll have.

Genetics is the use of simple rules that are written in how we inherit things from our parents and how we pass things down to our kids. When you look at population levels there are mathematical relationships between different people based on their genetics. Its also relevant for how we think about disease, and human health and predispositions. If you put the data across populations you can answer really interesting questions about human health. Things like longevity, bullying and mental health are the sort of things you see in a correlation between life chances and wealth, Some aspects of life are hard coded in a very specific way in our genetics but other things are far more complex and depend on environmental signals throughout our life – where you grow up, levels of pollution, how you eat. All of these things throughout your life will impact your genetics. You can derive algorithms for understanding all of that by looking at the data. Everything about us to some extent or another has a genetic component.

You can find out more about Estelle and Trellis Healthcare at LinkedIn or https://www.jointrellishealth.com/

You can listen to the podcast in full and find out further information here. Our upcoming guest list is also available along with our previous blogs.
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What we want, not what we need. Technology and self-awareness.

The latest episode in our Resilience Unravelled series has now been released, Resilience Unravelled – What we want, not what we need. Technology and self-awareness.

In this episode, Dr. Russell Thackeray talks to Daniel Jenkins whom he met when he guested on his podcast The Freelance Entrepreneur. Daniel is also a consultant solicitor, working for two London law firms and specialising in civil and construction litigation, something that can be both contentious and stressful!

Daniel set up his podcast to help younger people with the practical and mental health elements found in starting up a business. He feels many younger people suffer from stress and anxiety when they start their own business and his podcast aims to provide them with tools he would have found useful when he was starting up his own business.

Every generation faces it’s own set of challenges. What Daniel feels is facing the younger generation now, is the advancement of technology and the pressures that come with it. Using the legal profession as an example, clients used to contact solicitors by telephone and letter so work could be done reasonably slowly because there were days to respond. Now, most people can access their work emails on their phone so expect a response in minutes and hours rather than days. This brings the expectation that responses have to be provided quickly and at any time because potential clients will go somewhere else if their requests are not answered straight away.

It is possible that generational attitudes to technology may not be as straightforward as people tend to think. Because they grew up without it, many older people now see the introduction of technology as an enabling toolkit whilst to some younger people it is enslaving with increased expectations. Daniel grew up in a world where work contact has always been by email and mobile so its difficult for him to image a world where you can’t be contacted immediately.  Because he didn't know the world beforehand, technology doesn’t seem liberational or transformational as it might to someone older.

Some professions have embraced technology whilst others have been slower. Daniel feels the legal profession usually lags a little behind and is not moving as quickly as it could. Technology is available but isn’t utilised fully.  If systems that improve time efficiency and keep costs down for clients aren’t updated, firms will quickly get left behind.

Introducing new technology can also mean that roles become soulless and lacking in meaning and purpose. Pigeon holing people so they deal with the same thing over and over again can be the most efficient way to run a business but its not good for the people doing the work. They become a cog in a machine and miss the challenge of doing something different, something that's not just a tick box exercise. When a job becomes a simple transaction process, it loses any sense of purpose, which in turn affects mental wellbeing.

Millenials in particular have had a pretty tough time. Their parents brought them up to expect that they will have a job with meaning and purpose but the gig economy, highly computerised, low value, low brainpower jobs means their expectations for a better life have not been met. They also have to deal with the ideal portrayed by social media and the idea that ‘if they can have it I can and if I don't get it I’m doing something wrong’. As a society we’re not keeping up with technological advances. We don't understand the impact on people of being exposed to social media 24/7 – the pressure to fit in, to be instantly contactable and constantly ‘on’ - so its no wonder people exhibit anxiety.

Younger people need to be given the tools to deal with social media at an early age so that they have a choice and know that access should be limited to ‘as much as you want but not what you need’.

You can listen to the podcast in full and find out further information about Daniel here. Our previous podcast episodes and upcoming guest list are also available. Our full blog archive is also available.

You can get in touch with Daniel at The Freelance Entrepreneur.co.uk or through LinkedIn