SLCC_18: Climate Change: Businesses and climate change

Introduction

Small and medium enterprises use around 50% of total UK business energy and are responsible for half of all business carbon emissions. Although SMEs tend to think that climate change does not affect them, the small changes they make to their way of working could have a positive, cumulative effect.

There is a great deal of information out there about the risk of climate change to businesses, government climate change policies and corporate responsibility. There are also numerous resources available to businesses that are unsure about how to assess their risk of exposure, how to manage that risk, and how to begin the process of adaptation.

This unit aims to bring together this information by addressing the key concepts of risk, corporate social responsibility and engaging employees, and to allow businesses to make informed decisions about this issue.

Learning outcomes