Climate change

Make Your Business Climate Resilient

Practical actions to help your business prepare for flooding, drought, extreme heat, storms and other severe weather.

Climate resilience means making your premises and business operations better able to cope with severe weather and recover from disruption.

Know your risks → Reduce your vulnerability → Measure the difference → Review and improve

1. Know your risks

Consider how severe weather could affect your premises, staff, customers, equipment, stock, suppliers and ability to operate.

Climate risk	What could happen to your business?	Your risk
Heavy rain & flooding	Flooded premises, overwhelmed drainage, damaged stock or equipment, disrupted access	Low / Medium / High
Drought & water shortages	Reduced water availability, restrictions or disruption to water-dependent activities	Low / Medium / High
Extreme heat	Overheating, uncomfortable working conditions, equipment problems, increased cooling demand	Low / Medium / High
Storms & high winds	Building damage, fallen trees, unsafe access, damaged equipment or signage	Low / Medium / High
Power & communications failure	Loss of IT, lighting, refrigeration, communications, security or other critical systems	Low / Medium / High
Wildfire & prolonged dry weather	Fire, smoke, restricted access or disruption to surrounding areas	Low / Medium / High
Supply-chain disruption	Delayed deliveries, unavailable supplies, transport disruption or supplier failure	Low / Medium / High

Your three priority risks

2. Reduce your vulnerability

Water, flooding & drainage

Action	How it can help	How to measure the impact
Rainwater harvesting	Stores rainfall for reuse and reduces reliance on mains water	Litres of storage installed; litres of rainwater reused; reduction in mains water
Water efficiency measures	Reduces water demand and exposure to shortages	m³ or litres used before and after
Leak detection & repair	Prevents avoidable water loss	Daily/monthly water use before and after
Rain gardens	Captures and manages surface water close to where it falls	m² of roof or hard surface draining to rain garden
Permeable paving	Allows more rainfall to soak into the ground	m² of impermeable surface converted
De-paving / de-concreting	Reduces hard surface and increases opportunities for infiltration and greening	m² of hard surface removed
Sustainable Drainage Systems (SuDS)	Helps manage surface water and heavy rainfall	m² of site draining to SuDS; water storage capacity where known
Flood barriers / flood doors	Helps protect vulnerable entrances from floodwater	Number of entrances or vulnerable areas protected
Raise vulnerable stock or equipment	Reduces potential flood damage	Number or value of vulnerable assets relocated or raised

Measure your water improvements

Mains water use before: ______ m³/year
Mains water use after: ______ m³/year
Water saved: ______ m³/year

Rainwater storage before: ______ litres
Rainwater storage after: ______ litres
Additional storage: ______ litres

Rainwater captured and reused: ______ litres/year

3. Prepare for extreme heat

Focus first on reducing heat entering or building up around your premises, then consider ventilation or cooling requirements.

Action	How it can help	How to measure the impact
External shading	Reduces direct sunlight entering through windows	Number or m² of windows shaded
Trees and planting	Provides shade and increases green cover around premises	Number of trees; m² of shade or planted area added
Green roofs and walls	Adds vegetation to exposed building surfaces	m² installed
De-paving and greening	Replaces hard surfaces with planted areas	m² converted
Insulation and building retrofit	Improves the building fabric and can help manage internal temperatures	m² or building elements upgraded; indoor temperature monitoring
Solar-control measures	Reduces solar heat gain through glazing	m² of glazing treated or shaded
Improved ventilation	Helps manage excess internal heat where conditions allow	Indoor temperatures before and after
Efficient cooling where required	Helps maintain comfortable and safe internal conditions	Hours above your chosen indoor temperature before and after

Measure your heat resilience

Highest indoor temperature before: ______ °C
Highest indoor temperature after: ______ °C

Working hours above your chosen temperature before: ______ hours
Working hours above your chosen temperature after: ______ hours

New shaded or green area created: ______ m²

Compare temperatures under similar weather and operating conditions wherever possible.

4. Prepare for storms and disruption

Action	What to check	How to measure progress
Inspect roofs, gutters and drainage	Identify maintenance or structural vulnerabilities	Number of outstanding defects
Manage vulnerable trees and outdoor features	Identify items vulnerable to high winds	Risks identified and addressed
Protect critical equipment	Identify equipment vulnerable to water, wind or power loss	% or number of critical assets protected
Back up important business data	Ensure essential information can be recovered	Backup tested: Yes / No
Plan for power disruption	Identify which critical activities depend on electricity	Critical functions with backup arrangements
Plan alternative communications	Ensure staff and customers can still be contacted	Backup communication method tested: Yes / No
Identify alternative suppliers	Reduce dependence on a single critical supplier	% of critical supplies with an alternative source
Prepare staff severe-weather procedures	Ensure staff know what to do	Procedure in place and communicated: Yes / No
Plan alternative working arrangements	Identify whether essential activities could operate differently or elsewhere	Critical functions with contingency arrangements

5. Choose actions with multiple benefits

Some resilience measures can help address more than one climate risk.

Action	Flooding	Drought	Heat	Nature
Rainwater harvesting	✓	✓
Rain garden	✓	✓	✓	✓
Trees and planting	✓	✓	✓	✓
Green roof	✓		✓	✓
De-paving	✓		✓	✓
Permeable surfaces	✓
Drought-resilient planting		✓	✓	✓
Increasing planted area	✓	✓	✓	✓

6. Measure the difference

Record your starting position before taking action. Measure it again afterwards to see what has changed.

What are you improving?	Before	Action taken	After	Improvement
Mains water use	___ m³	__________	___ m³	___ m³ saved
Rainwater storage	___ L	__________	___ L	+ ___ L
Impermeable surface	___ m²	__________	___ m²	− ___ m²
Area draining directly to conventional drainage	___ m²	__________	___ m²	− ___ m²
Green / shaded area	___ m²	__________	___ m²	+ ___ m²
Peak indoor temperature	___ °C	__________	___ °C	___ °C change
Hours above chosen indoor temperature	___ hrs	__________	___ hrs	− ___ hrs
Critical equipment vulnerable to flooding	___ items	__________	___ items	− ___ items
Business closure following severe weather	___ hrs	__________	___ hrs	− ___ hrs
Critical supplies with alternative source	___ %	__________	___ %	+ ___ %

7. Create your Climate Resilience Plan

Priority risk	What could happen?	What will we do?	How will we measure success?	Starting point	Target	By when?
__________	__________	__________	__________	______	______	______
__________	__________	__________	__________	______	______	______
__________	__________	__________	__________	______	______	______
__________	__________	__________	__________	______	______	______

Your first three actions

1. We will: __________________________________________
We will measure: ____________________________________
By: __________________

2. We will: __________________________________________
We will measure: ____________________________________
By: __________________

3. We will: __________________________________________
We will measure: ____________________________________
By: __________________

8. Learn from severe weather

Review your plan at least annually and after significant severe-weather events.

Date	Weather event	What happened?	Business disruption	Cost / damage	Did our measures work?	What will we improve?
______	______	______	______ hours	£______	Yes / Partly / No	______
______	______	______	______ hours	£______	Yes / Partly / No	______

Track your resilience over time

Look for evidence that your business is becoming more resilient:

Mains water consumption: reducing
Rainwater captured and reused: increasing
Impermeable surface: reducing
Green and shaded area: increasing
Overheating hours: reducing
Critical assets protected: increasing
Severe-weather downtime: reducing
Weather-related losses or damage: reducing
Critical supplies with contingency arrangements: increasing

About climate resilience

Climate change can increase risks from extreme rainfall and flooding, heatwaves, drought, storms and wildfires. These impacts can affect businesses directly and through supply chains, customers and markets. Planning for these risks can support business resilience and continuity.