LSC/UoS BA - Climate Change Impact on Business: Sustainability Report

This report analyzes the impact of climate change on businesses, highlighting concerns from executives about its negative effects, including resource scarcity, changing demands, physical risks, and operational impacts. It emphasizes the importance of environmental sustainability for business reputation and recommends strategies for businesses to reduce their carbon footprint, such as recycling, using sustainable suppliers, and educating staff and customers. The report concludes that businesses must proactively address climate change risks and adopt sustainable practices to mitigate negative impacts and build a positive market reputation, referencing examples like Mark and Spencer and Tesco who are already implementing these practices.

Impact of the climate
changes

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION .............................................................................................................................3
Impact of the climate changes on business ...................................................................................3
Recommendation to business to reduce carbon footprint .............................................................4
CONCLUSION .................................................................................................................................5
REFERENCES...................................................................................................................................6

INTRODUCTION
Sustainable business or green business, is that enterprise which has a minimal negative
impact and potentially an affirmative influence on the local or global environment, society,
economy or community- a business which strives to meet triple bottom line (Buranatrakul and
Swierczek, 2018). These business cluster under various groupings and whole is sometimes
referred to as the green capitalism. Frequently a sustainable business organisation have a
progressive environment and human rights practices. Generally, business is defined as green in
case if it incorporate principles of the sustainability into all of its business decisions and it is green
than the traditional competition. Therefore, this report will be based on the impact of climate
change on business and recommendations to overcome these challenges.
Impact of the climate changes on business
It is not new that climate change will have an effect on the business as much as any other
aspect of the lives. This world is at a tipping pint when it comes to the climate changes and more
than around 80% of the executives are concerned,as per the Deloitte Global's 2021 climate check
report. Possibly its is because mostly globally organisation are already starting to feel its negative
effects. There are certain ways in which climate changes impact the business across the world.
These ways are mentioned below:
 Scarcity/cost of the resources- In organisation the resources like water, food and energy
are at the risk due to both the human and environmental causes, with energy and customer
industries reporting all the greatest impacts (Liu, Wang and Zhu, 2020).
 Changing demands for the goods- Combination of the changing prices and changing
weather pattern create change in the demand of some goods. For instance demand for the
cold weather product including ski equipment and heating oil might decline. It also create
new opportunities for the environmental friendly corporation. Business like Seventh
generation, Patagonia have all the found success by catering to customer which make the
environmentally conscious choice when they shop.
 Physical risk- Climate changes create series of the new business challenges in which most
obvious is physical risk including (operational impact of the extreme weather events and
supply shortage caused by the water scarcity), business are exposed to the transition risk

that arise form the society's response to the climate changes including changes in
technologies, regulations which can increase the business cost and undermine viability of
the existing product,
Another climate related related challenges for business is potential liability to emit the
green house gases. As increasing number of the legals cases have been brought in a direct
way against the fossil fuel organisation and utilities in present year, that holding them
liable for damaging impact of the climate changes.
 Operational and reputation impact- For organisation are observing operational impact
of the climate related disasters including workforce disruption and facilities damage.
Beside it, of an organisation will not efforts for the environmental sustainability them it
may damage the business reputation in market place as organisational environmental
sustainability practices are core tenets of the business culture and brand identity (Sabir and
et. al., 2020).
Recommendation to business to reduce carbon footprint
In this time of the climate change, all business could be doing more in order to reduce their
environmental impact (Secinaro and et. al., 2020). Hence, there are various ways through which
the business can minimise carbon footprint. These ways are mentioned below:
 Recycling- In organisation, recycling at workplace is easy way to reduce the
organisational carbon footprint. When company recycle, they reduce number of the way
material which need to be sourced in order to create the product from scratch. For instance,
recycling single tin can save enough energy to power a computer fro around one hour. In
relation to Mark and Spencer, it also practice to recycle the product. In this, customer can
recycle the product from any product including those not bought at Mark and Spencer, by
placing them into company's plastic recycling Units at any nearest stores. Respective firm
will take care of rest.
 Use sustainable suppliers- It is no longer enough to ensure company's own business is
doing its part to aid protect the environment, company should also use the sustainable
suppliers. If business pulling out all the stops for minimising their environmental impact,
but support the businesses who do nothing and the bare minimum in order to protect the
environment, company could in theory, be assisting to fund unsustainable practices.

 Educate staff and customers- It mean nothing if organisation s are trying to cut on their
carbon footprint, but no one else in their company has such knowledge (Selmi and et. al.,
2022). Hence, let there be just a civil communication or conversation to the topic with
staff, customer and boar of directors. If everyone become aware of company's policies to
cut down carbon emission, they will be making huge step towards reducing their footprint,
that might arise form their product. Tesco is a retailing company and it provide training to
its employees so that they can understand that why reduction in carbon footprint is
essential.
CONCLUSION
From the above report it is concluded that warming planet create wide range of the risk or
challenge for the business, from disrupted supply chain to rising insurance cost to labour
challenges. The decimate changes and an extreme weather events including floods, fires and
hurricanes, have direct impact on the economic sector globally. therefore, business can relay
impact the way they operation to reduce carbon footprint and make an effect. There is multitude of
the changes which can be made to the way an organisation operate to attain it. Hence it is
suggested that every business should take initiative to reduce carbon footprint as it help them to
build a reputation in market efficiently.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Buranatrakul, T. and Swierczek, F.W., 2018. Climate change strategic actions in the international
banking industry. Global Business Review, 19(1), pp.32-47.
Liu, J., Wang, Y. and Zhu, Y., 2020. Climate for innovation and employee creativity: An
information processing perspective. International Journal of Manpower.
Sabir, A. and et. al., 2020. Impact from Distilleries of CO2 Discharge on Climate Changes: Key
Facts. Sustainable Ethanol and Climate Change: Sustainability Assessment for Ethanol
Distilleries, p.113.
Secinaro, S. and et. al., 2020. Impact of climate change mitigation policies on corporate financial
performance: Evidence‐based on European publicly listed firms. Corporate Social
Responsibility and Environmental Management, 27(6), pp.2491-2501.
Selmi, R. and et. al., 2022. “There is No vaccine for climate change” _ how well Governments’
COVID-19 green stimulus announcements contribute to business sustainability?.
International Economics.