Why businesses must address growing environmental risks

According to the World Economic Forum’s Global Risks Report, the global risks landscape has changed dramatically over the past 13 years. Largely economic risks have yielded to environmental risks moving to the forefront, demanding that business leaders make a similarly dramatic change in their thinking.

Companies need to understand how environmental risks affect business, both in terms of direct business interruptions as well as their impact on other interconnected global risks.

Environmental risks are here now. Extreme weather events, such as rising temperatures, wildfires, droughts and hurricanes,  have captured headlines and attention around the world. These events are painfully real and incredibly expensive. Weather events in 2017 cost more than $300 billion in the U.S. alone.

Because these risks are heavily interrelated and systemic in nature, businesses cannot view the world linearly anymore. Instead, companies need to transform their business model to adapt to this complex, ever-changing world. Failure to do so, as the Global Risks Report warns, runs the risk of system collapse.

Watch Alison Martin, Group Chief Risk Officer for Zurich, address these risks and discuss the opportunities available if action is taken, and taken now.