The corporate impact of climate change
Whether your business is B2B or B2C, climate change is impacting your company right now, and it is shaping its future.
From nicety to necessity
The advocacy for, and urgency around, fighting climate change has been increasing for the last few decades. However, it is only in the last few years that ‘sustainability’ has transitioned from a PR buzzword to a very real and critical component of modern business models.
How is my business impacted by climate change?
Whatever your size, industry or customer demographic, climate change is continually creating challenges and bottlenecks for your business. For example:
Increasing operational risks and supply chain inefficiencies
Unprecedented and extreme weather conditions are causing global fires, floods, storms, droughts, and earthquakes.
These life-threatening climate disasters increase the operational and logistical risks for businesses, especially through travel disruptions and damages to workplaces.
The inability to protect stock in production and storage, as well as failing to move this stocker via haulier or shipment, will jeopardise order fulfilment, profits and customer relations.
In addition to threatening the logistics of your supply chain, climate change is also threatening the production and fulfilment of your suppliers and third parties.
Rising costs of resources and raw materials
The urgency for businesses to drive sustainability is not just motivated by hazardous weather disruptions. Climate change is also increasing the cost of raw materials.
A prime example is the drastic increase in fuel prices.
Impacting your consumers and changing their behaviour
In the 2020s, there is a rapid increase in ‘Conscious Consumerism’[1], which are buying practices driven by a commitment to make purchasing decisions which have a positive social, economic or environmental impact.
At least two-thirds of Generation Z (born between 1997-2012), which accounts for 40% of consumers, are willing to spend 48% more on purpose-led brands.
But sustainability motivated buying behaviour is not just limited to Gen Z. In 2021, it was reported that 32% of consumers were highly engaged with adopting a more sustainable lifestyle. At least 28% stopped purchasing products due to ethical or environmental concerns.
Intensifying your corporate responsibilities
In 2022, the UK became the world’s first major economy to pledge to become Net Zero by 2050. To achieve this, the UK must:
- Decrease the emissions being sent into the atmosphere that are caused by industrial processes, power generation, transport and intensive agriculture.
- Remove greenhouse gas emissions from the atmosphere by capturing carbon created during industrial processes before it’s released, or simply planting more trees.
With regulations around sustainability inevitably set to become tighter in the coming months and years, this will undoubtedly inflict major operational changes for businesses.
Bringing sustainability into business strategy
Whatever your drivers for addressing climate issues, sustainable practices are a must-have in today’s blueprint business model.
Failing to acknowledge these ongoing issues and implement an effective plan of action to deal with them, could cost your business in so many ways. The repercussions of this negligence could see a rapid decrease in operational efficiency, profit, customers, reputation and more.
But how can you develop a strategy to combat these risks without increasing costs and causing operational disruptions?
Data, and the information and insights it powers, can help you to better understand the full impact of climate change on your operations, logistics and full supply chains. Only when you’re armed with that kind of intelligence can you create the plans that help you navigate and overcome the challenges.
In OrderWise’s latest white paper, we explore the direct impact climate change has on modern businesses, the growing expectations around this and how you can adopt your current resources to drive sustainability.
Find out more here.