Destructive Weather Impacts Corporate Thinking

Published on October 05, 2018

Many Canadian companies are being made aware of the realities of climate change, as they are forced to confront the impact it has on their business, with many starting to plan for the future accordingly. Jim Mandeville, senior project manager for the full-service disaster reconstruction firm FirstOnSite, has stated that he knows first hand the impact weather-related events can have on businesses. Also that his company is who you call, “after anything bad has happened” he says. He also states that the majority of his business has recently been coming from companies who are looking to upgrade and guard against the worst, and that business is good.

Deloitte employed economist Craig Alexander believes it may be a better decision to focus on increasing resilience against the effects of climate change that are already set in motion, instead of putting all efforts into reducing emissions over the long term. His suggestion regarding one of the best ways of mitigating potential damage is to focus on outdated infrastructure, quoting government estimates that Canada has more that $140 billion worth of assets considered to be in either “poor” or “very poor” condition as of 2016.

Atif Kubursi, professor emeritus of economics at McMaster University says that presenting the environment as a major upfront cost, instead of the opportunity cost of inaction misrepresents how much money is needed over the long term. Kubursi believes that investing in climate mitigation provides much more significant long term benefits than what is lost from the upfront investment.