Resiliency in Corporations
A reflection upon the ESRI training seminar: Mapping Two Sides of Sustainability - Reduction & Resilience
This seminar primarily focused on the role of corporations in reducing their impact on climate change while being resilient. I found it incredibly helpful that the moderators and panelists opened the discussion with first defining reduction and resilience as it specifically pertains to corporations. This was significant because often, defining these terms as they relate to climate science can be easily misinterpreted or applied incorrectly. For reduction, the panelist defined it as focusing on decreasing greenhouse gas emissions by reviewing and assessing how best to lower the company's carbon footprint through efficient operations, alternative energy sources, improved logistics and smarter resource allocation and usage. As for resilience, the panelists defined this as assessing climate-related threats to business, customers, and communities using local intelligence to reduce risk.
What was interesting is that investors and insurers are pressing for disclosure of climate-related risk to a corporation, while consumers and regulators are demanding action. Ultimately, companies that ignore these focuses could see the cost of operations and capital rise, along with long-term business risks. Large corporations are beginning to shift priorities more towards longevity with hopes of attracting longer investors and collaborations.
The only issue that I had with the webinar is that I wish there were case studies illustrating the concepts discussed. The panelist did touch on how their own companies were proceeding with resilient and reduction initiatives but only on the surface. Most likely, this was due to time. It would have been helpful to see more visually the benefits of the tactics and strategies discussed in order to scale offsets as well as reporting mechanisms that would communicate the climate risk and impacts on the companies discussed (including financial impacts, basically the quantifiable data).
What this seminar highlighted is the challenge how companies reduce their impact on the climate while improving their resilience to climate change. Corporations are beginning to walk through the analysis process of forecasting risks that may not manifest for 5,10, 20 years in order to minimize the impact of those disruptions. Furthermore, companies are looking into how they can invest individual assets now to strengthen (hence the term "resiliency") to maintain continuity in their networks.
The panelists began by focusing on understanding the climate risk specific to their sector and locality. The emphasis on locality was a constant theme throughout the entire discussion as they coined it "location intelligence". Without a deep review of these risks as it relates to the company's locality, a company may not understand the full impact or even identify the appropriate risks specific to the community they serve.
Overall, this seminar is a perfect insider's view of how companies within the private sector run through risk management procedures to help minimize the disruption that climate change impacts may have on their company. It is great to see that companies are now prioritizing these initiatives.