From Risk to Resilience: Key Takeaways from Our Series Kickoff
We recently launched our 5-part webinar series in partnership with Environmental Defense Fund (EDF): Embedding Climate Action into Business Value.
The series began with the session "From Risk to Resilience," bringing together over 100 professionals to discuss the practicalities of climate adaptation. Reflecting on the group's participation, Neil Yeoh, OPF Founder & CEO, noted: “It was great to see over a hundred people sign up for the session. They're a really engaged group around this idea of climate risk to resilience.”
Here are the primary takeaways from the session: an in-depth analysis on why climate risk is shifting from a compliance requirement to a strategic imperative.
Climate risk is a business reality
The data is clear: extreme weather events are already disrupting operations and supply chains. The conversation has shifted from "if" to "how much.”
“If all else fails, climate risk is here to stay and there is acknowledgement, as long as you believe in the climate sciences, that extreme weather events are impacting businesses we see today.” Neil said. “Which is why it's so important for climate risk to be at the top of conversations. It relates to the cost that we will incur either from a GDP country level or even at a company level if we don't adapt it.”
Moving from jargon to strategy
A major barrier to action is the language gap between technical climate data and strategic business decision-making. Terms like "physical transition risks" often alienate the very stakeholders needed to drive change.
Neil highlighted this challenge: “The biggest challenge, and even I found it quite tricky, is how do we go from this jargon of climate risks, like physical transition risks, like these visceral type of climate natural disasters, and actually get to what does this mean strategically for your business.”
This is where standardized frameworks serve a function beyond reporting:
“A lot of these other areas of framework, overviews like TCFD to IFRS become extremely important for us to navigate that climate risk. Although it may feel like a compliance exercise, it is one of those steps towards the value creation it can bring.”
Data and AI are changing the game
We do not need to wait for perfect global standards to begin assessing vulnerability. The rise of climate intelligence and AI has made it possible to collect quantitative and qualitative data immediately.
“We can actually collect data in a quantitative and qualitative way to be able to find out what the value at risk is for businesses,” Neil explained. “In fact, there are free ones that you could use today to evaluate this risk and have a very good step-by-step to analyze your own climate risk.”
The objective, as Neil mentioned, is to move this data “from the top down from enterprise all the way to departmental teams,” ensuring that risk management “goes beyond compliance.”
Join the discussion
This session was the first of five. The series continues through January, covering En-ROADS simulations, Scope 3, renewable energy procurement, and efficiency, designed to help you integrate climate action across operations and value chains.
Upcoming schedule:
Dec. 17: Global Climate Risks & Opportunities: Exploring Solutions with the En-ROADS Simulator. With Katherine Markova, Partnerships Manager, Climate Interactive. Register here.
Jan. 14: Beyond the Factory Gate: Tackling Scope 3 with Climatech and Collaboration. With Neil Yeoh, CEO & Founder, OnePointFive. Register here.
Jan. 21: The Renewable Advantage: How Smarter Energy Procurement Lowers Cost and Carbon. With Matthias Muehlbauer, COO & Co-Founder, OnePointFive. Register here.
Jan. 28: Efficiency for Cost and Carbon Savings: Unlocking a Smarter Path to Net Zero. With Matthias Muehlbauer, COO & Co-Founder, OnePointFive. Register here
Coming Soon: A new chapter for OPF Academy
For practitioners looking to specialize further, we are developing the new chapter for OPF Academy focused specifically on sustainability reporting and disclosures.
Subscribe to the waitlist and be the among the first to experience it.
