Your work

Changing weather patterns in the UK and other social and economic effects of climate change have the potential to cause considerable disruption to daily life in the future. Your organisation will need to prepare for these risks so that you can continue to deliver your services.

Business continuity

More stormy weather, higher energy prices and reduced transport reliability are just some of the climate-related trends that are likely to have a direct impact on every organisation. How will your organisation cope with these challenges? Consider the impact on:

your beneficiaries or cause
your staff, volunteers and trustees
your premises
your other resources
your operations
your finances.

Managing the risks

As with other risks, it would be impossible to manage every threat that climate change could pose for your organisation. The key will be to explore the range of challenges you could face, and assess them according to their likelihood and the impact they would have. You’ll then be able to create a plan for managing the risks at the top of the list.

New requirements and expectations

As society shifts to a low carbon economy, it’s likely that your organisation will face growing pressure to act sustainably from:

legislation requiring organisations to reduce their carbon footprint
environmental reporting demands from funders and commissioners
expectations from donors, service users and other stakeholders for evidence of good practice in this area.

Examples

The Health, Safety and Environment Group at RNIB lead the organisation’s work on climate change, ensuring that the implications of emerging climate change trends are easily understood in a risk management context.

Friends of the Elderly is already addressing its carbon emissions partly because of public sector commissioning requirements.

Read more about the experiences of several organisations operating in the UK that have tackled these questions.