How to Build Responsible and Resilient Supply Chains

In just a fortnight last fall, the U.S. supply chain took a one-two punch as hurricanes Helene and Milton ravaged the South. Devastation in areas of Florida and North Carolina impacted the availability of produce, medical supplies like IV fluids and dialysis solutions, and quartz, a key component for making semiconductors, solar panels and fiber optic cables.

This is not an anomaly. By 2026, climate-related weather events and other environmental risks could cost suppliers an estimated $1.26 trillion, according to CDP’s Global Supply Chain Report. 

Extreme weather, a shifting climate, and other natural hazards are increasingly important to sustainability and environmental, social and governance (ESG) priorities in supply chain management. These weather and climate effects factor into strategies for mitigation, preventing further climate change that exacerbates such outcomes, and adaptation, making supply chains more resilient to those effects. 

Companies need to understand their impact and the risks they face, as well as the collaborative opportunities that mitigating and adapting to such risks presents. Most major companies are now measuring their environmental impacts and risks, which includes closely examining the sustainability practices of their supply chain partners and discussing how they can collectively take steps to attain key goals of business sustainability and resilience.

The Deloitte 2024 Sustainability Action Report notes that 98% of companies have made progress t…