Building A Sustainable Organisation: Impact of Climate Change on Businesses and Steps to Reduce Carbon Footprint

This report discusses the impact of climate change on businesses and the steps they can take to reduce their carbon footprint. It covers topics such as extreme weather, changes in resources availability and cost, change in demand, harsher working conditions, change in public perceptions, and change in regulations. The report also provides solutions such as recycling, sustainable suppliers, switching to hybrid or fully electric cars, investing in green energy and green office equipment, planting trees, and minimizing single-use plastic.

Building A Sustainable
Organisation 1

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
Climate change disaster for businesses........................................................................................3
Steps business can implement to reduce carbon footprint...........................................................4
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................5
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................1

INTRODUCTION
The greatest threat to humans and global health in this 21st century is climate change.
Climate change is the global phenomenon which is the change in usual climate of earth caused
by human activities. In the report below elements which effect the climate change and effect
businesses are being discussed. Impact of climate change on the businesses would be taken into
consideration also what steps can be taken to reduce carbon footprints by business would be
discussed.
Climate change disaster for businesses
Climate change is changing the way how humans live and how they work. Progressive
alliance states that there would be millions of jobs which would be affected by increase in
temperature & current climate crisis has led to uncontrolled capitalism. Over consumption and
unstable levels of production and extraction of fossil fuels has led to devastating impact on the
environment. Progressive alliance asked all the governments, political parties, national and
international bodies to address the climate crisis on up most priority which can led to net zero
emissions of greenhouse gases by year 2050 (Time for Action -Climate Justice now! 2019). The
climate is completely linked to nearly everyone and everything humans connect as a society.
Climate change will have enormous effect on the businesses some of them are following.
Increased risk due to extreme weather
Change in weather will be disrupting operations of businesses and will cause extreme
financial and physical damage. This will increase the risk of business which will cost higher
insurance for the businesses in the upcoming years. Climate change would be increasing
frequency and intensity for extreme weather conditions which will have storms, floods and heat
waves.
Changes in resources availability and cost
With this extreme weather events the businesses have been facing issue with the supply
chain of resources and materials. Rise in electricity and transportation have increases the cost of
moving goods. This scarcity of resources has led the companies to use alternative materials and
recycle more waste.
Change in demand

Change in demand has led to change in demand of business products for instance heating
oil will decline and demand of winter goods has increased. This has led to consumers shifting to
more environmental friendly products.
Harsher working conditions
Jobs which require physical labour to work outdoors can increase the health and safety
risk in these industries causing harsher working conditions (Momodu and et.al., 2020). This will
increase the cost as well as it will affect the working conditions.
Change in Public Perceptions
With the increase in companies opting for 100% renewable energy the demand for
sustainable products are huge. With prior people's pressure companies are reducing their impact
on environment and are accepting climate change. This has led to increase in social
responsibilities of the businesses.
Change in Regulations
Businesses that produce high level of emissions have to invest in upgrading their
facilities to reduce or to eliminate them. Energy companies are shifting to cleaner resources for
power generation.
Example
UK has been experiencing longer and hotter summers with higher temperatures which is
leading to coastal erosion by which tourists are unable to visit areas where the economy depends
on them, which is affecting business directly (Goldstein and et. al., 2019). This creates negative
effective on the hospitality business in those areas. Wind power has been affected by the terrain
conditions which are harmed to ongoing changes as the climate changes. The 2050 net zero
emission might be a challenging task but UK Businesses are trying their best to mitigate changes.
Steps business can implement to reduce carbon footprint
Recycle
One of the easiest way of omitting carbon footprints of businesses is to recycle. When
recycling is done it reduces number of raw materials needed for creating product from scratch.
By implementing recycling Business could promote green work culture (Andersson, and
Keskitalo, 2018). This creates an attractive customer base and boosts staff’s morale. With
recycling businesses can aid to conservation of earth resources.
Sustainable Suppliers

Business are doing their part of being helping heart but must contribute to those suppliers
who are working together to reduce the carbon footprints. This creates a logical supply chain of
emitting carbon footprints. A good certification to look out when selecting a supplier is ISO
14001. This certification provide that businesses are improving their resource efficiency and are
working on waste reduction.
Switching to hybrid or fully electric cars.
As UK has banned petrol and diesel cars by 2030, business could think about investing in
electric cars to omit carbons. Car manufacturers are investing a huge chunk of funds in electric
card production and no wonder they are doing good for the earth.
Investing in green energy and green office equipment
Investing in green office is a great way to reduce carbon emissions by the business.
Businesses must try to opt for solar energy (Campiglio and et.al., 2018). This alone will help a
lot for reducing carbon footprints as well as heavy electricity bills. When it comes to workplace
led bulb lighting, energy saving enabled computers and mobile devices should be used to
overcome this problem.
Planting Trees.
Business must opt to plant trees as much as they can either in their premises or outside,
this will help in reducing carbon footprints. Business can go for souvenirs or gifting schemes for
planting trees for every service or product they sell. This will create an impact outside of
business and will increase reputation of the business.
Minimise Single use plastic
Single use plastic products are the most problematic for the planet and are major threat to
environmental and human health. Reusable plastic does not harm the nature as much as single
use products do.
CONCLUSION
From the above report it can be concluded that climate change creates a great impact on
businesses. The above report also states that government, national and international bodies are
trying their best for omitting the greenhouse effect by 2050. also, businesses are taking initiative
to go green and are taking projects based on green energy which will reduce the carbon
footprints on earth.

REFERENCES
Books and journals
Andersson, E. and Keskitalo, E.C.H., 2018. Adaptation to climate change? Why business-as-
usual remains the logical choice in Swedish forestry. Global Environmental Change. 48.
pp.76-85.
Campiglio, and et.al., 2018. Climate change challenges for central banks and financial regulators.
Nature Climate Change. 8(6). pp.462-468.
Goldstein, and et. al., 2019. The private sector’s climate change risk and adaptation blind spots.
Nature Climate Change. 9(1). pp.18-25.
Momodu, and et.al., 2020. Global strategy, local action with biogas production for rural energy
climate change impact reduction. African handbook of climate change adaptation. pp.1-
19.
Online
Time for Action -Climate Justice now! 2019. [Online]. Available through: <https://progressive-
alliance.info/2019/11/16/time-action-climate-justice-now/>

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