Sustainability Factors in Business Risk and Mitigation
This course provides delegates with a thorough grounding in ‘unconventional’ risk associated with environmental rather than directly financial considerations, and how these link to activities within organisations and along their supply chains. The course will also cover the management of relationships with suppliers in a risk context and discuss approaches to risk mitigation along supply chains.
Course Format
Virtual Course – These courses are run using the Zoom platform as a fully interactive course, just as our live courses are. We have had great feedback from delegates on these courses.
Overview
Environmental and sustainability issues increasingly create direct financial, operational and strategic risks for organisations.
Climate change, energy and resource costs, water availability, supply-chain disruption, biodiversity loss, changing regulation, customer expectations, investor requirements and reputational pressures can affect operating costs, asset values, access to insurance and finance, continuity of supply and an organisation's ability to deliver its products and services.
These risks cannot be managed effectively if sustainability is treated separately from normal business-risk management.
This one-day course provides managers with a practical framework for identifying, assessing and mitigating sustainability-related business risks.
It explains how environmental, social and governance factors can translate into operational and financial consequences and how these risks can be incorporated into existing risk registers, governance arrangements, procurement processes and strategic decision-making.
The course covers climate-related physical and transition risks, resource and supply-chain risks, nature and biodiversity, stakeholder expectations, materiality, life-cycle thinking, circular-economy opportunities and emerging sustainability-reporting expectations.
It helps delegates to identify sustainability risks, assess their significance, examine value-chain exposure and develop mitigation and resilience actions for their organisation.
Why this course is important
Sustainability risks are increasingly business risks.
An organisation does not need to operate in an obviously environmentally sensitive sector to be exposed. A business may depend on energy-intensive suppliers, water availability, overseas raw materials, vulnerable infrastructure, insurance availability or customers whose procurement requirements are changing.
Climate-related risks can include physical effects such as flooding, extreme heat and severe weather as well as transition risks arising from changes in regulation, technology, markets and customer expectations.
Nature-related risks are also becoming more prominent. Businesses can depend on water, soils, ecosystems, raw materials and other natural resources without those dependencies appearing explicitly in conventional risk registers. The TNFD framework now provides a structured approach to identifying nature-related dependencies, impacts, risks and opportunities.
At the same time, reporting expectations are changing. UK SRS S1 addresses sustainability-related financial risks and opportunities generally, while UK SRS S2 deals specifically with climate-related risks and opportunities. Both use governance, strategy, risk management, metrics and targets as core elements.
The purpose of this course is to help organisations identify sustainability issues that could materially affect the business and establish sensible measures to avoid, reduce, control or adapt to those risks.
Who should attend?
This course is suitable for managers involved in organisational risk, sustainability or strategic decision-making, including:
- Sustainability managers
- ESG managers
- Environmental managers
- HSE and HSEQ managers
- Business and operational managers
- Risk managers
- Facilities and estates managers
- Procurement and supply-chain managers
- Compliance managers
- Finance personnel involved in sustainability reporting
- Corporate governance and assurance personnel
- Senior managers and directors with sustainability responsibilities
- ISO 14001 environmental management system managers
The course is suitable both for organisations with established sustainability programmes and those beginning to integrate sustainability into their business-risk processes.
What you'll learn:
On completion of the course, attendees will:
Testimonials
Will be returning and recommending
- Bell Group
Considering it was an all-day event, on a Zoom call, it was well paced. This was the first EBIS course that I have attended and it was fantastic
- Welwyn Hatfield Borough Council
Considering this event was delivered via Zoom, I think it worked very well. Thank you
- EDF Energy
At first I was a little apprehensive, all day on Zoom may be tough going. I was wrong, the day went quickly
- Hathaway Roofing
Excellent course, great instructor knowledge, well adapted to Zoom set up
- Collins Construction
Would recommend this to my colleagues
- ABB Ltd
Great day, really enjoyed my first Zoom course. Great presentation, plus not too heavy
- YPO
Thank you! Wonderful day!
- BBC
Will be returning and recommending
- Bell Group
Considering it was an all-day event, on a Zoom call, it was well paced. This was the first EBIS course that I have attended and it was fantastic
- Welwyn Hatfield Borough Council
Considering this event was delivered via Zoom, I think it worked very well. Thank you
- EDF Energy
At first I was a little apprehensive, all day on Zoom may be tough going. I was wrong, the day went quickly
- Hathaway Roofing
Excellent course, great instructor knowledge, well adapted to Zoom set up
- Collins Construction
Would recommend this to my colleagues
- ABB Ltd
Great day, really enjoyed my first Zoom course. Great presentation, plus not too heavy
- YPO
Thank you! Wonderful day!
- BBC
Course Programme:
Course programme
9:00–9:30 | Registration
9:30–9:45 | Welcome and introduction
• Course aims, objectives and sustainability risks facing delegates’ organisations.
9:45–10:45 | Understanding sustainability as business risk
• Moving beyond corporate responsibility to integrate sustainability into business risk management.
• Environmental, social and governance risks within operations and value chains.
• Financial effects on revenue, operating costs, capital expenditure and asset values.
• Implications for insurance, finance, supply continuity, customer access and reputation.
• Direct and indirect risks across short, medium and long-term time horizons.
• Opportunities through efficiency, resource reduction, new technologies and improved resilience.
10:45–11:00 | Break
11:00–12:00 | Risk identification, materiality and risk registers
• Writing clear risk descriptions that distinguish causes, events and consequences.
• Assessing likelihood, financial and non-financial consequences, time horizons and risk velocity.
• Reviewing existing controls and distinguishing inherent from residual risk.
• Financial, impact and double materiality, including differences between reporting approaches.
• Stakeholder concerns, including those of employees, customers, suppliers, investors, insurers and regulators.
• Risk ownership, interconnected risks, escalation thresholds and senior-management oversight.
12:00–13:00 | Lunch
13:00–14:00 | Climate, resources and nature-related business risks
• Physical climate risks, including flooding, extreme heat, storms and water stress.
• Acute events and longer-term changes affecting buildings, workers, supply chains and insurance.
• Transition risks from policy, carbon costs, technology, customer expectations and changing markets.
• Energy transition and the risk of stranded or obsolete assets.
• Dependencies on energy, water, critical materials and commodity availability.
• Nature-related impacts and dependencies, including introductory TNFD concepts and the Locate, Evaluate, Assess and Prepare approach.
14:00–14:45 | Value chains, life-cycle thinking and the circular economy
• Mapping risks across suppliers, contractors, logistics, customers, product use and end-of-life.
• Geographic concentration, single-source dependency and exposure beyond direct suppliers.
• Supplier environmental and social performance, regulatory exposure, data quality and assurance.
• Procurement and contractual requirements as risk-control measures.
• Life-cycle thinking from raw materials to disposal, and when detailed life-cycle assessment is useful.
• Reducing waste and material dependency through reuse, repair, remanufacture, recycling and longer asset life.
14:45–15:00 | Break
15:00–15:30 | Mitigation, adaptation and business resilience
• Avoiding risks, reducing exposure and limiting consequences through physical and operational controls.
• Substitution, alternative materials, supplier diversification and supplier-development programmes.
• Climate adaptation, transition measures, business continuity and emergency preparedness.
• Insurance, risk transfer and contractual controls.
• Prioritising actions by cost, risk reduction and the balance between immediate measures and strategic investment.
• Assessing residual risk against risk appetite and identifying opportunities alongside mitigation.
• Assigning action owners and using early-warning indicators to check implementation and effectiveness.
15:30–16:00 | Governance, reporting and action planning
• Board oversight, management responsibilities and integration with existing governance arrangements.
• Sustainability metrics, targets, data quality and evidence that can be checked.
• UK reporting developments, UK SRS S1 and S2, and their relationship with TCFD-based approaches.
• Governance, strategy, risk management, metrics and targets within sustainability reporting.
• Climate-related transition planning, business strategy and TNFD awareness.
• Internal assurance, control reviews and avoiding unsupported sustainability claims.
• Case study: identifying sustainability risks within an apparently resilient business.
• Preparing a sustainability risk and mitigation action plan, followed by final questions and course review.
16:00 | Close
