Climate Impact as a stakeholder?
Climate change impacts are already affecting businesses although it’s not always visible if you do not know exactly where to look, and it is anticipated that these impacts will continue to grow into the future. Organisations of all types and sizes have increasing needs to understand, mitigate, and manage climate change risks. A recently published standard, EN ISO 14091:2021 ‘Adaptation to climate change – Guidelines on vulnerability, impacts and risk assessment’ offers organisations a consistent, structured, and pragmatic approach to understanding their vulnerabilities and to preventing or mitigating negative consequences caused by climate change, while taking advantage of opportunities. Regenerate the Planet has advanced experience with integrated management systems, and we have begun to see direct impact of climate change on day-to-day operations, in a case soil moisture calculation where unexpected from the theoretical model, and subsequently we had a cave-in of a construction site, with a near miss accident. These apparently small but increasing in impacts are felt within the operations of our clients.
“ I did not realize it, but climate change is already there, and with this management system we integrate risk assessment and adaptation into our management cycle and all of a sudden it become alive for everybody” Maarten Mos, Director van Baarsen Buisleidingen”.
ISO 14091:2021 supports organisations in the use of systematic and replicable risk assessment tools, allowing for qualitative and quantitative analysis. It describes how to understand vulnerability and how to develop and implement a sound risk assessment and is applicable to organisations of all types and sizes, whether doing so for the first time or conducting advanced risk assessments. The standard offers guidance on the use of different approaches, namely screening assessments, and impact chains. It covers the different steps required for a solid climate risk assessment, including the preparation, implementation, and reporting of such an assessment. Further details are provided regarding the use of indicators, data management and assessment of adaptive capacity.
A climate change risk assessment according to EN ISO 14091:2021 will offer a solid basis for adaptation planning, implementation, monitoring, and evaluation, targeting present and future climate change risks. We will integrate this ISO standard into your existing management system. Contact us for more information.