Greening Business

The success of the private sector - small or medium sized businesses - may not only depend on how successfully it can mitigate, but also on how it can adapt to climate change.

Extreme weather events are already causing havoc to operations, supply chains and commerce all over the world.

Only this summer, flooding in the United States destroyed corn and soya crops; the Bahamas suffered their worst hurricane on record; while in Europe, train companies turned away passengers because tracks were at risk of buckling in record summer temperatures. What consequences could there be for outfitters in Nunavut with global warming?

Wherever you were, it was not business as usual.

Yet climate risk continues to be ignored by most businesses. Investment is not flowing to where it is needed most: to build more resilient economies in response to global warming.

There are exceptions, of course. Shipping company Maersk is studying how to make ports more resilient to rising seas. Bloomberg, the news and financial-data company, has relocated a key data centre out of Manhattan to protect its equipment against flooding.

We are surprised that only a handful of companies have developed plans for a future on a warming planet, not least because adaptation is in their best interests. However, if you have a business or are an entrepreneur, let's see how climate change affect your operations.