Manage environmental risks and other climate risks to your business

Climate change is increasingly recognised as a risk for business owners.

Climate-related risks to your business may include:

  • growing frequency and/or severity of extreme weather – you may have increasing insurance costs, more damage to property and resources, and disruption of power and water. Customers may be unable to visit or contact your business, or suppliers may be unable to deliver goods or services.
  • decreasing demand – there may be less demand for your goods and services if they are not environmentally friendly, or competitors with more sustainable products or services target your customers. It may also be difficult to attract and retain staff if your business is not sustainable.
  • global impacts – overseas suppliers may be unable to deliver goods or services due to climate change events in their country, and the ability of your business to supply overseas customers may be similarly affected. International customers may move towards buying locally.
  • increasing costs – you may experience higher costs for the resources you use to run your business. Water restrictions may also affect your business.

Video: Townsville resort turns water fail into eco-success

Business owners Fiona and Martin Lidgett explain how a water fail in their first week of owning their business led to them building a wetland and a reverse osmosis system.

Learn how Queensland businesses take climate action.

  • [Fiona Lidgett – Co-owner, Townsville Eco Resort]

    Climate action for me personally is about reducing your footprint for now leaving it in a better place for future generations than what it is right now.

    My name's Fiona Lidgett, and myself and my husband, Martin, own Townsville Eco Resort, and we've been here for around 9 years now.

    Just before the floods, we installed solar PV and battery backup, that has reduced our power bills by half and reduces the carbon emissions.

    We have also made use of white roofing systems for cooling effect and things like that, ensured our lighting is LED, our lighting is on timing as well.

    We have a number of recycling programs in place where we mulch a lot of our green waste on site to reduce emissions, we do recycling for our cans and bottles and things, and the money that we earn back from that goes into habitat protection within the park.

    When we took over, we had water fail in the first week of our ownership, and we came up with the option of a reverse osmosis system. We constructed the wetland, which purifies all our onsite wastewater.

    As an advanced ecotourism business, we very much support our local region in ecotourism, especially, we're right in the middle of the Great Barrier Reef.

    The constructed wetland helps with water runoff to the reef, it enables that water to be very clean.

    [Jason Lange – Director, Atlas Soils]

    The ecosystems in the Great Barrier Reef catchment are very unique and very interesting as an ecological professional, so the resort allows people, academics, and visitors a chance to interact with the wetland that's not commonly in an urban area.

    So Atlas Soils involvement was around biological best practice on the banks of the wetland, and so, that's very much about activating the biology that keeps that wetland system functioning optimally.

    [Fiona Lidgett]

    There's been a huge benefit to us in the environment here, we've seen a lot of wildlife return.

    It's important to know that you don't have to have a huge business to be able to start somewhere, it might be recycling your paper, it might be putting some solar in, and it's just a matter of exploring those options available.

    We're very proud that Townsville region has a great base and a great support network for implementing environmental initiatives and supporting climate action from local council to local government to small businesses.

    If you don't have the knowledge, you've got to reach out to the people that have it that can hold your hand along the way.

Adapt to climate change

Climate change is already impacting small businesses across Queensland. A well-developed business plan can help you identify and prepare for climate-related risks, including in the areas of:

The Climate Change Risk Management Tool For Small Businesses In Queensland (PDF, 10.2MB) includes simple steps to help businesses adapt or pursue new business opportunities, for example by:

  • digitising documents to avoid paper-based systems being ruined by severe weather
  • having appropriate insurance
  • accessing mentoring programs.

The plan was developed by the Business Chamber Queensland with funding under the Queensland Climate Adaptation Strategy (Q-CAS) (PDF, 2MB). It is one of 7 Sector Adaptation Plans developed by Queensland's business and industry sectors under Q-CAS.

Regulation requirements

There may be regulatory reporting requirements for your business and penalties may apply for non-compliance.

Corporations that meet a National Greenhouse and Energy Reporting threshold must register and report each year.

For more information on licences or permits for your business:

Prepare a climate risk management plan

Assess how climate change is already affecting your business and how it could affect it in the future. Identify the risks that climate change brings to your business and prepare a risk management plan that deals with climate change.

Taking steps now to address climate risk can save your business from financial or other problems. Understanding the changing social and economic trends due to climate change can help you to improve the competitiveness and future viability of your business.

Learn what the latest science says about the projected future climate for Queensland at the Queensland Future Climate Dashboard.

Find out how to develop a risk management plan to help your business cope with climate change risks.

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