Weathering the Storm A Guide to Saving and Making Money in a Changing Climate

Purpose of the report

This guide has been produced for small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs) in the West Midlands. It will help you to understand how you could be affected by weather, including extreme events, and how you can improve your chances of a quick recovery. The guide also sets out business opportunities from responding to a changing climate and provides useful tools and contact information to help you become more resilient. The guide also includes information on how to enhance your resilience to other shocks too, such as those related to the economy, pandemics and cyber security.

It was produced by Sustainability West Midlands in collaboration with the Environment Agency in December 2022, building on the previous iteration originally published in 2011.

The information in this guide is focused on actions that are relatively easy for small businesses to achieve, tackling issues that are within your control or influence. You might not be able to stop flooding or an extreme storm event affecting your business, but you can take a few simple steps to reduce the impact these might have on your business so that you can keep operating.

There may also be opportunities that organisations can take advantage of, including identifying new markets or products, through to saving money from effective resource efficiency. This guide also provides details of these.

Download the full report here.