New Service: Sustainability Risk & Resilience Framework

Summit’s Sustainability Risk & Resilience Framework

Author: Shaun Walden

Over Christmas, I caught up with an old friend who also works for a FTSE 100 firm. We reminisced about the climate work we did together a decade ago and laughed about how much time and budget we spent trying to understand the climate impacts on the business 15 to 20 years into the future. Since then, the firm’s business landscape has changed beyond recognition. Most of the risks we identfied never materialised and were replaced by risks we never imagined.

This conversation sparked the development of Summit’s Sustainability Risk & Resilience Framework. A practical, fit-for-purpose approach to sustainability risk that focuses on the realities businesses face today, in a business cycle. As a client once told me, "I lose the boardroom if I start talking in decades," meaning the focus needs to be on the now.

Coupled with today’s rapidly evolving business environment, sustainability risks are also no longer distant or abstract concerns but immediate challenges that can disrupt operations, supply chains, and reputations. Climate change impacts, social inequalities, regulatory shifts, and technological disruptions converge to create complex risk environments demanding agile, integrated responses.

However, it is critical to recognise that not all sustainability risks require active management or mitigation within a company’s risk appetite or threshold. Organisations must prioritise risks based on materiality, likelihood, and potential impact relative to their strategic objectives and operational capacity. This selective approach ensures resources focus on risks that truly threaten business continuity and value creation.

Moreover, embedding sustainability risk management within regular business planning cycles i.e. annual, quarterly, or even monthly, makes resilience a practical, actionable priority. This shifts sustainability risk management from a distant, long-term horizon concern to a core element of near-term business decision-making, budgeting, and performance management.

By integrating resilience capabilities into business planning, organisations can respond dynamically to emerging risks, capitalise on innovation opportunities, and maintain competitive advantage in volatile markets. This approach also strengthens accountability and governance by linking sustainability risk resilience directly to business outcomes and stakeholder expectations.

In essence, our framework is designed to make sustainability risk & resilience fit for business now: actionable, prioritised, and embedded in the rhythms of organisational strategy and operations.

If you want to explore how Summit’s Sustainability Risk & Resilience Framework can help your organisation build practical resilience and prioritise sustainability risks effectively, please get in touch.