Environmental Issues In Management – Impact Of Climate Change On UK Business

Environmental Issues in UK

Discuss about the Environmental Issues in Management.

The world is facing a terrible threat from the increasing temperature they has a widespread impact on the biotic as well as abiotic factors. Increased emission of harmful greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, methane, nitric oxide has huge contribution to the above mentioned threat. The rise in temperature takes place as the harmful gases form a cover of blanket in the earth’s atmosphere and prevents the long wave radiation of the heat to go back into the atmosphere (Becken et al. 2012). As a result this heat cannot escape and in turn heats up the earth’s atmosphere and resulted in global warming. Global warming has been projected as the main reason of the various disasters taking place over the earth’s surface such a smelting of ice in polar areas. This has resulted in a huge effect on every country of the world. In the essay one can consider a particular country in the world and thereby show the various effects that it can have on the natural habitat at that place along with the different adverse effect that it can have on the various industries in the country. Business gets affected in a series of chain reactions that altogether attacks the stable socio economic condition of the country as well as the different lifestyles of the people residing there (Weinhofer et al. 2013).

United Kingdom has gone through a series of natural disasters that has resulted in an extreme consciousness of the businessman to save their business from the ill effects of the climate change that has been occurring from the previous five years. A series of natural disasters have occurred in the recent year that had made the life of people devastated and had a propounding impact on the various industries present in the UK. A flood that occurred along with the storms in the winter months of the years 2013 to 2014 has affected the lives of common people in every way possible. In other terms one can portray it as a severe blow to a large number of business organisations as well as to a number of industries which are directly as well as indirectly associated with the human lives of the country (Epstein et al. 2015). Climate projections analysed over the uyears found that the impact of the environmental disasters on the business and the welfare of the industries must be thoroughly analysed and suitable measures to be taken so that the lives of the local people benefitted from the industries can be altered towards betterment along with causing no loss to the investors and the purchasers involved in the business arenas. With the increase in temperature at this rate, environmentalists have concluded that there would be a rise of temperature of about 4? Celsius in the coming 40 years. Therefore, one cannot expect to decrease the effects of the natural disaster in the coming years but one can definitely take precautionary measures so that the business and industries should not get affected for they form the base of the social and financial reputation of a country (Benn et al. 2014).

The Carbon Disclosure Project

Risks in business are closely associated with the various climate changes in the country. From the past few years global warming has resulted increasing the temperature of the winter months of UK above a mean temperature of about 4? Celsius. This has concerned many environmentalists as well as the industries that flourish on the temperature range of the winter months being below the mentioned temperatures. This warming has caused a large number of risks to the business industries. In order to protect the industries from a large number of harmful effects of that of the various warming side effects a new project has been launched called the carbon disclosure project also called CDP (Howard et al. 2014). This project usually guides a huge number of companies in essaying the harmful impacts that various climatic changes such as floods, deforestation, lack of fresh water availability and various global changes over the world and take measurements accordingly. They have a huge number of collected information and data sets from a variety of investors and purchasers that helps in policy making by every businessmen and policy makers that helps the business to cope up with the various losses faced by the industries (Morrison et al. 2013). The CDC usually acts by taking a survey of the different environmental performances provided by the companies, cities and states. They then integrate the data into the account of their projects so that they can analyse critically about the impacts the environments have on them. The most helpful and important aspect of the CDC that the investors, purchasers and the businessman can utilise the facts and the data to make plans and decisions that help to manage the different impacts and the risks that they have on the industry. It also helps to derive the planning how one can set the entire system in a way that can yield various opportunities in a number of different ways. This system has provided ecosystem integrity as well as cared for public interests thereby saving the industries from doom (Gleick and Eisha 2014).

The risks that are faced by different environmental changes can be broadly classified into a number of two groups. One of the groups can be classified as the direct risks and the other as indirect risks. The direct risks usually include the direct impact of climate on the number of various industries such as the operations conducted by the factories and the supply chains. It also affects the assets and properties of the industries as well. The second risk that the climatic changes can affect the organisations are the production efficiency as well as the production capacity, the various types of cost implemented for operational purposes as well as the ability to perform successful business (Smith 2013). As these risks have a direct effect on the success to loss ratio of every industry they can be easily identified and therefore may result in easy identification and analysis. The indirect risks usually include the risks that become inevitable from the direct risks that are confronted from the climatic changes in the cases. They usually include the changes that are involved in the regulation of the business environment. Changes in the behavioural output of the purchasers as well as the consumers are indeed a major risk for maintaining the profit margin of each industry. Expected planning and the procedures of every stakeholder involved such as the investors and the local organisations also get altered thereby creating a messed up situation (Hargroves et al. 2013). All this fluctuations ultimately lead to a tensed situation due to the continuous fluctuations of the socio- economic conditions of the various states in the country and results in a compromised livelihood. The demand of goods and commodities gets altered creating a pressure on the operational costs and seriously affect the market valuation of different commodities. In comparison to that of the direct risks which are easily identifiable, these risks are difficult to identify and can often be neglected by business (Becken et al. 2012).

Direct and Indirect Risks in Business

A large number of risks and impacts that are identified in this concept are the reduction in the production capacity and increased operational costs. These in turn lead to a series of complicacy that follows. These may be listed as reduced demand for goods and commodities due to the fall of economic condition of the country which in turn inhibits the ability to perform business (Jira et al. 2013). Further, increase in the capital cost causes disruption in the supply procedures and supply chain. The storms and floods also affect business by making difficulty in the availability of the raw materials due to the complete destruction or difficulty in extraction of the materials required. Market valuation gets affected due to the reduction of the stock price altogether harming the global economy of the country in the midst of the world. As a result, the reputation of the industries on the global scale gets affected thereby causing a series of negative aspects. Availability of capital becomes a major source of concern as the investors become unwilling to invest in such a tensed situation in the country often facing environmental changes and their successive effects (Winn and Pogutz 2013). The profit margin often gets altered in such a way that the organisational foundation gets affected with no profit and more loss outcome due to the impacts of the climate change. A major concern that arises from this facet is the workforce health that gets severely affected and the safety measures needs to be properly analysed. Often claiming of insurance becomes a major concern to the organisation that leads to a bulk outflow of capital from the system of the organisational funds. All together the customer demands get altered that might become a risk for the organisational output but may become an opportunity of another organisation that gets benefitted from the risks faced by a particular organisation (Geneva Association 2015).

One can clearly portray the above mentioned risks by providing light on the two cases reported in the dailies of the UK. M&S are one of the leading top 50 stores of UK that had conducted a study on the risks that it can face for the changing condition of the environment. They have identified that changing weather condition will affect their sales as well as their customer to staff experience, internal store environment, hygiene issues, water scarcity due to flood and comfort level of the purchasers (Becken 2013). Taking this as the primary concern they have laid out various discussions among their top authorities as well as with their landlords. They believe that they can take prior adaptations within 2020 that will protect them from any environmental hazards.

Impact on Business Operations

Resource Company BHP Billiton maintains a reputation of the world’s top leading coal industries who are also monitoring the potential impacts of the climate changes o the level of their profitability. Cyclone Yasi that has hit the areas of North Queensland missed the Hay Point Coal port facility that has been very near to the region hit by the cyclone. This near miss of the cyclone was taken as a warning threat by the company and they have contributed themselves for the development of strategies such as like building very high trestles near the Hay Point port facility (Bocken et al. 2014). These have protected their properties and assets from the effects of storm intensity and storm surge levels.

In order to analyse the sectors of the industries attaining different level of risks, one can classify the industries as those receiving greatest number of high severity like accommodation, water, food industries as well as the manufacturing industries, information and communication organisations. Organisations providing gas service and steam as well as air conditioner producing companies also fall into high risk category. Agricultural, forestry and fishing industries also faces severe threat. The second category forming the medium risk category are the mining, wholesale retailing, technical, professional and construction industries (Balbus et al. 2013). The third category that is the low risk categories mainly involve the organisations dealing with the administrative and the support services, those with education and transportation business, storage business and social work activities.

Different models have been proposed by different policy makers for proper adaptability of the organisations to the various hazardous impacts that the climate change may have on their output capability. That is provided below in a simple diagrammatic representation as follows:

Source: CDP data, 2014

By analysing the various risks that are associated with a large number of impacts from the various climatic hazards, different strategies have been plan from which different policies can be incorporated. These policies will in turn increase the opportunities in different sectors. A very good example is very well understood by the scarcity of water that occurs mainly due to flood or due to increase of temperatures due to global warming. The number of industries working for technologies that manage the supply and demand of water gains the most opportunities to excel in their fields (Franks et al. 2014). Markets for fire protection may find a successful foothold for the various adverse effects brought down by the natural disasters. Increase of temperature has been correlated with the increasing number of harmful insects that play an active role in the complete destruction of a large number of crops. As a result, pesticide industry faces an increased profit level due to the hazardous impact of global warming. Thus, Crodas’s crop care business has excelled in the present decade (Hawken et al. 2013). Many insurance industries taking a chance of the opportunities have designed many policies that are related to climate change con sequences thereby attracting a large section of population towards them and thereby seeing good profits. HSBC have produced several such policies covering risk factors such as water and climate resilience, crop and forest protection and others (Becken et al. 2012). Present day houses and buildings are facing material durability problems, besides corrosion of steel, increased concrete carbonisation and quality of the timber getting deteriorated mainly because of the effect of global warming. Therefore construction houses are making good use of the opportunity as they are receiving expensive infrastructure, building as well as maintenance contracts. Companies dealing with scientific and technical activities are also flourishing due to the increased demand of inventing technologies and services that would provide effective solutions against climate change destruction thereby increasing climate resilience (Mills 2012). Organisational consultancies and management firms are also making good profit due to the increased demand of the services that the public, private and third sector companies for providing instructions and advices on climate resilience and policy making. Real estate are also incorporating higher sustainability credentials for consumers who are climate conscious and take steps for their own protection. Storage industries are also increased their cold storage facilities to meet the demand and thereby increase the customer base. Recycling industries also take opportunities of the water scarcity problem and in turn increase their profit margins. Electricity, gas, steam and air conditioner producing industry have got opportunity to provide consumers for effective space cooling technologies and both energy efficient and heating and cooling systems that are providing consumers with benefits and in turn they are very well expanding their markets (Carroll et al. 2014).

From the entire essay one can easily come to a conclusion that there is a very few chance that the temperature would be decreasing in the coming generations. As a result, natural disasters are bound to occur in the coming generations. This problem has a propounding impact on business and industries of a country affecting the socio- economic stature of the country. Different types of climate changes thereby may have a direct or indirect effect on the business world that are indeed very costly for the sustenance of the consumers who in other terms are the ordinary people of the nature (Franks et al. 2014). Many industries may see their downfall due to not being able to cope up with their falling market. CDU thereby has taken an initiative to provide the organisations with suggestions so that they can take steps and participate in climate resilience activities. Various designs and policies can be adapted by them for reviving their status. On the other side of the effects, there are many industries which are taking the opportunities of the disasters caused by climate change and in turn increase their assets and resources making utmost utilisations of the chances available. The primary aim that one should take in the scenario is that how the temperature increases can be controlled so that the above complications do not arise and the world remains a happy dwelling place.

References:

Balbus, John M., Alistair Boxall, Richard A. Fenske, Thomas E. McKone, and Lauren Zeise. “Implications of global climate change for the assessment and management of human health risks of chemicals in the natural environment.” Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry 32, no. 1 (2013): 62-78.

Becken, Susanne, and John Hay. Climate change and tourism: From policy to practice. Routledge, 2012.

Becken, Susanne. “A review of tourism and climate change as an evolving knowledge domain.” Tourism Management Perspectives 6 (2013): 53-62.

Benn, Suzanne, Dexter Dunphy, and Andrew Griffiths. Organizational change for corporate sustainability. Routledge, 2014.

Bocken, N. M. P., Samuel W. Short, P. Rana, and S. Evans. “A literature and practice review to develop sustainable business model archetypes.”Journal of cleaner production 65 (2014): 42-56.

Carroll, Archie B., and Ann K. Buchholtz. Business and society: Ethics, sustainability, and stakeholder management. Nelson Education, 2014.

Epstein, Marc J., and Adriana Rejc Buhovac. Making sustainability work: Best practices in managing and measuring corporate social, environmental, and economic impacts. Berrett-Koehler Publishers, 2014.

Franks, Daniel M., Rachel Davis, Anthony J. Bebbington, Saleem H. Ali, Deanna Kemp, and Martin Scurrah. “Conflict translates environmental and social risk into business costs.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 111, no. 21 (2014): 7576-7581.

Geneva Association. “The insurance industry and climate change-Contribution to the global debate.” The Geneva Reports 2, no. 1 (2014): 1-152.

Gleick, Peter H., and Newsha Ajami. The world’s water volume 8: The biennial report on freshwater resources. Vol. 8. Island press, 2014.

Hargroves, Karlson, and Michael H. Smith. The natural advantage of nations: business opportunities, innovation and governance in the 21st century. Earthscan, 2013.

Hawken, Paul, Amory B. Lovins, and L. Hunter Lovins. Natural capitalism: The next industrial revolution. Routledge, 2013.

Howard-Grenville, Jennifer, Simon J. Buckle, Brian J. Hoskins, and Gerard George. “Climate change and management.” Academy of Management Journal 57, no. 3 (2014): 615-623.

Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Climate change 2014: mitigation of climate change. Vol. 3. Cambridge University Press, 2015.

Jira, Chonnikarn, and Michael W. Toffel. “Engaging supply chains in climate change.” Manufacturing & Service Operations Management 15, no. 4 (2013): 559-577.

Mills, Evan. “The greening of insurance.” Science 338, no. 6113 (2012): 1424-1425.

Morrison, Clare, and Catherine M. Pickering. “Perceptions of climate change impacts, adaptation and limits to adaption in the Australian Alps: the ski-tourism industry and key stakeholders.” Journal of Sustainable Tourism 21, no. 2 (2013): 173-191.

Smith, Keith. Environmental hazards: assessing risk and reducing disaster. Routledge, 2013.

Weinhofer, Georg, and Timo Busch. “Corporate strategies for managing climate risks.” Business Strategy and the Environment 22, no. 2 (2013): 121-144.

Winn, Monika I., and Stefano Pogutz. “Business, ecosystems, and biodiversity: New horizons for management research.” Organization & Environment (2013): 1086026613490173.