July 14, 2023 | Blog

Consequences of Climate Change Increasingly Coming into Focus

Floods. Droughts. Record-setting heat waves. Health-challenging poor air quality.

This summer has seen these environmental events occurring with alarming regularity, posing a severe threat to both American lives and livelihoods. Increased energy costs, supply and distribution chain disruption, physical damage to infrastructure, and risk to the wellbeing of employees are among the challenges businesses anticipate facing as a result of extreme weather spurred by climate change. In an effort to both defend their business and the planet, 57% of C-suite executives at Fortune 1,000 companies are increasing their organization’s investment in sustainability initiatives, according to a Stem survey conducted by Wakefield Research.

Extreme weather events are raising awareness of the vulnerable state of the global environment and generating concern in the workplace about sustainability. Nearly a quarter of the world’s business travelers (23%) would decline a trip out of concern for the environmental impact, according to an SAP Concur survey with Wakefield Research.

Further, a Honeywell survey by Wakefield Research found that just over 1 in 5 on-site workers would quit their job if their employer did not put measures in place to ensure healthy indoor air quality.

However, the impact of climate change doesn’t begin and end with businesses — everyday citizens are having to dig into their pockets as well. Damage from extreme weather is so commonplace that 58% of American homeowners have or know someone who has had to repair or renovate their home as a result, reveals a James Hardie survey with Wakefield Research. That’s an increase from 47% in 2021.

Unfortunately, the events of the past few days have made clear that this number is not going to drop anytime soon.