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Sustainability
Is your business ready for climate change?
by Madelyn Postman
Infernal commutes on the Tube. Refrigerator and air con meltdowns. Productivity tanking in overheated buildings.
If that sounds like your London business this summer, you ' re not alone. Research from the LSE Grantham Research Institute estimated that the June 2026 heatwave resulted in 24 million lost working hours and £ 1.15 billion in lost UK economic output in a single week.
Operational resilience
Extreme heat has quickly become an operational resilience issue in London. It affects human productivity and attendance, but also cooling systems, transport infrastructure, buildings, customer footfall, and ultimately whether premises can function as intended.
The impacts of climate change extend well beyond rising temperatures. The water cycle is being disrupted, increasing the risks of both drought and flooding. In London, this is putting growing pressure on infrastructure designed for historical climate conditions, from reservoirs and drainage systems to the Thames flood defences. Creating long-term resilience in the capital requires significant investment.
The potential economic impact is considerable. Recent analysis supporting Heat Ready London estimates that climate-related damage could cost London up to £ 36 billion a year by the 2050s without further adaptation.
What should businesses be doing now?
The first step is to understand where the business is exposed. This means looking beyond individual premises and considering the people, suppliers, infrastructure and services that the organisation relies upon.
Business leaders could start by asking three questions:
1. What would happen if a key site became unusable? Understanding exposure to flooding, extreme heat and other physical climate risks can help businesses identify where additional resilience or contingency planning may be needed.
2. Which people, suppliers and systems are most vulnerable? Climate impacts do not have to occur directly at a business’ s premises to cause disruption. Extreme weather affecting employees, transport networks, utilities or a critical supplier could quickly become an operational issue.
3. Could decisions made today increase future exposure? Property investments, office locations, supply chains and other long-term decisions can all influence how resilient a business will be in the years ahead. Climate risk should therefore be considered alongside other commercial factors when making these decisions.
Existing business continuity plans are a useful place to start. Businesses should consider whether these plans adequately account for more frequent or severe extreme weather and whether responsibilities, alternative arrangements, and critical dependencies are clearly understood.
Climate resilience is business planning
Preparing for climate impacts does not replace the need to reduce emissions. Businesses need to address the emissions contributing to climate change while also preparing for impacts that are already becoming unavoidable.
Climate resilience cannot be viewed as a separate sustainability exercise. The impacts to property, supply chains, workforce planning, investment decisions and business continuity can be profound. Businesses that understand their exposure and act early will be better placed to protect their people, operations and long-term performance.
The question is no longer simply whether climate change will affect your business, but how prepared you are when it does.
Madelyn Postman is director, ESG at Menzies LLP
www. menzies. co. uk / services / strategicbusiness-advisory / esg