Resilience and risk reduction are two tactics that have grown ingrained in the C-suite and have become commercial requirements for all businesses.
They are two sides of the same coin. For instance, a company that optimizes transportation routes to reduce its carbon footprint may create a more effective network that is potentially less susceptible to storms, floods, and other climate hazards. A business that restructures its operations to use fewer natural resources ensures a more reliable supply of that resource in the future.
Some of the most well-known companies in the world are emphasizing a spatial strategy since resilience, risk, and sustainability are intrinsically geographical issues.
GIS technology gives real-time insight into potential effects on communities, people, infrastructure, assets, partners, and the supply chain. Informed decisions on where to invest in facilities, sourcing, manufacturing, infrastructure, labor force, and markets are made possible thanks to its assistance in the forecast of climatic dangers. Location analytics may be used by businesses to track the usage of natural resources across the whole organization as well as to assess emissions from factories, auto fleets, stores, and offices.
Geographic information systems (GIS) give decision-makers a “single pane of glass” through which they can predict climate-related events to ensure the safety of staff and customers, create location-specific mitigation plans, and coordinate efforts to reduce disruptions and maintain business continuity. In the long run, GIS-based modeling can alert business executives to the location of deteriorating climatic conditions. It leads them to harden or shift assets and infrastructure required to service the next generation. Furthermore, executives obtain a full perspective of corporate activities across land and water by modeling. It facilities or supply chains into a GIS-based digital twin, complete with data from IoT sensors and satellite or drone footage.
GIS: The Central Nervous System of an Organization for Resilience and Reduction
Because extreme weather events and other climate change challenges are increasingly harming their capacity to meet consumer expectations daily, many C-suite leaders have raised resilience to a top priority. GIS provides businesses with a central digital nervous system for contextualizing and analyzing data.
Many of the world’s most powerful firms have also signed on to net-zero promises. It implies a major transformation in how they purchase and move goods and materials. Businesses require extensive visibility into their operations and a detailed grasp of where they can make the most adjustments to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and achieve ambitious resilience targets. By using a geographical perspective, business executives can anticipate weather occurrences and implement location-specific initiatives.
For instance, the largest telecom business in the world has been collaborating with the US Department of Energy’s Argonne National Laboratory. It develop predictions that depict how the locations of infrastructure, such as cell towers and base stations, might be damaged by storms with a 50-year forecast. They can predict, with 95% accuracy using the methodology, whether a section of shoreline would see up to 15 feet of flooding in the upcoming years.
Additionally, businesses are responding to depleted ecosystems. They have resulted in resource-poor regions and land that is unable to recover from climate change. They have led to these locations. Farms and woodlands with high biodiversity ratings exhibit long-term resilience and higher productivity. Another compelling argument for firms to be open about how they consume resources impacts the environment. If feasible, conceal inefficiencies.
A Success Formula for Business Continuity Planning
The United States’ most significant shellfish producer recognizes that resource planning spans decades. Rather than months, is required to ensure a sustainable supply of seafood. The executives of the firm utilize pH sensors and GIS to evaluate the acidity of ocean water. This is also to determine how effectively oysters respond. Despite environmental changes that have killed other hatcheries, they have been able to advance.
Composting, no-till farming, and crop rotation can help retain carbon in the soil and prevent nutrient loss. One of these companies is a Boston-based agriculture startup.
One major furniture conglomerate owns vast tracts of forest in the United States and Eastern Europe. They can take up to 140 years to develop, making sustainable forestry a critical concern for the corporation. It employs GIS to guide environmentally appropriate forest management practices. The company’s GIS analysts can determine which tracts include tree species most vulnerable to challenges. It includes the invasive bark beetle based on data from field agents and satellite photography. They can use this information to identify regions that require protective measures, preventing costly losses. GIS is used by the corporation to track biodiversity parameters. Such as the health and population levels of animal, plant, and insect species on its holdings. This comprehensive understanding of woods and the ecosystems they support is critical to sustaining sustainable forests.
Governments and investors are putting increased pressure on businesses to disclose environmental problems in addition to the financial requirement. This is to become more robust and risk-averse. For instance, a new set of severe green disclosure requirements in the United Kingdom will call for significant firms to provide sustainability data.
Companies that adopt a geographic strategy have a distinct advantage when it comes to adhering to new regulations. Executives can gather and organize pertinent data with the help of sensors and location dashboards. Maps are among the simplest ways to explain and contextualize sustainability reporting to the general public, regulators, and investors.
In the most influential offices in the world, a longer-term view is emerging as climate change reshapes enterprises and whole industries. There is a growing recognition that maintaining a bright future necessitates a location-specific assessment of today’s activities and their implications for tomorrow.