2026 has brought repeated heatwaves across Europe, wildfires in France, Spain and Canada, extreme rainfall in West Africa and severe flooding in China. For businesses the consequences are operational: sites closed, staff unable to work safely, deliveries delayed and premises damaged.
Most corporate climate work has focused on cutting emissions. Adaptation, meaning preparation for the changes already under way, is the other half of the picture, and it is often where small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs) currently have the least practical guidance. We have added five actions to the Giki Actions library to address that gap.
The five actions
- Assess and diversify supply chain climate risk. Review how exposed key suppliers are to climate disruption, then reduce that exposure through supplier engagement, flexible contracts and alternative sources.
- Develop a business continuity plan for climate disruption. Cover storms, floods and heatwaves, plus the knock-on effects on power, transport, technology and people.
- Manage heat risk. Put a heatwave plan in place covering people, premises and operations during periods of extreme heat.
- Improve building and infrastructure resilience. Strengthen buildings, sites and equipment against flooding, overheating and storms.
- Train staff on climate risks and response. Give staff the knowledge to understand climate risks and act well during extreme weather.
How they fit together
Adaptation follows a sequence:
- Assess first: identify which locations, suppliers and activities are exposed, and what a disruption would cost.
- Plan second: for the risks that would hit hardest, agree in advance who does what, what the warning signs are and which backup arrangements apply.
- Respond third: protect people, then premises and operations, and record afterwards what could be done differently.
The supply chain action sits in the first stage. Business continuity and heat risk sit in the second. Building resilience and staff training support the third. Alongside our existing actions on physical climate risk analysis and extreme weather response plans, the library now covers the full sequence.
How we developed them
Every action in the library follows the same five-step process. We extract practice from real enterprise climate work, analyse it for relevance, materiality and impact, then research it into implementation guidance an SME can follow without sustainability expertise. We test each action with SMEs and refine it on their feedback, and we maintain it through continuous review against evolving best practice. The Giki Actions library currently has over 750 climate actions, all road-tested by enterprises and now on the plans of the 800+ companies who we've helped to build climate action plans.
All five actions are available now within any Climate Action Plan on Giki Actions. Free to build.