Latest Updates

The tragedy that occurred in June 2017 was completely avoidable. 5 years on, there are still important lessons to learn.

Resilience First, in partnership with the Fire Protection Association, brought together a panel of industry experts over a live session discussing the outcomes of Phase 2 of the inquiry, the revised regulatory landscape and the implications for businesses. What does the Grenfell Tower Inquiry mean for business from a regulatory and advisory standpoint?

An industrial fire, or indeed any major incident will significantly disrupt a business. How well prepared and resilient that business is, will be critical in determining the scale of the impact. In this article, we will look at the effects of industrial fire and what businesses can do to improve their resilience. But first, what do we mean by resilience?

Decarbonising the world is the defining resilience challenge of the early 21st century. The UK is the fastest decarbonising of the G7 countries with 50% of electricity in the UK last year generated by low carbon sources.

70% of carbon emissions come from urban populations. How will the UK achieve this decarbonisation and how do you make already green city regions like Greater Manchester even greener?

The priorities of the rotating Presidency of the United Nations Framework Conference for Climate Change (UNFCCC), this year held by Egypt, included the reduction of emissions, scaling-up of adaptation efforts, enhanced financing and just transition. Resilience First, together with the International Coalition for Sustainable Infrastructure and the Resilience Rising consortium, has proudly supported the Conference with a series of fringe events and the launch of two flagship reports.  

Today at COP27, partners leading the Summary for Urban Policymakers (SUP) released a stand-alone solutions-driven follow-on to its three-volume summary series to inform the design and scale of science-based urban climate solutions.

Today at COP27 in Sharm El-Sheikh, the Summary for Urban Policymakers (SUP) launched a three-volume series of scientific reports to distill the most relevant climate science for urban actors from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s (IPCC) Sixth Assessment Reports (AR6). As a result of a year-long process of co-creation, the SUP reports capture the latest climate science as targeted and accessible messages. It demonstrates how local governments and business leaders can meaningfully accelerate and deepen climate action across the world.

As the world moves on from the pandemic, you would hope that life would become easier. Along with worries about energy supply and inflation brought about by the conflict in Ukraine, the pandemic has thrown up real issues around future supply of materials that we’re all going to need in the fight against climate change, and real concerns around what it may mean if demand cannot be met.

As increasing numbers of businesses become aware of climate change and what it takes for them to limit its effects on the world around us, sustainability is becoming more of a focus. Transport in particular, is something concerning both individuals and companies – in 2019, this sector was responsible for 27% of the UK’s total emissions. 

While consumers are more widely embracing the electric vehicle, it also makes sense for businesses too. In this article, we’re going to focus on the ways in which companies can utilise EVs as part of their overall sustainability strategy, while helping employees and customers alike understand how electric cars are good for the environment.

Significant rises in fuel and food bills across the board in the UK will increasingly bite over the coming year and particularly if there were to be a long, harsh winter. The important question that arises from the cost-of-living crisis is whether pressures could see current industrial unrest over pay escalate into wider social disobedience and even civil disorder. The momentum of campaigns like ‘Don’t Pay UK’ and ‘Enough is Enough’ in one indicator. If a large swathe of the population cannot afford to heat its homes or to feed itself, or both, then wider civil unrest may not be far around the corner.

The UK government is seeking to review its approach to climate change adaptation and is currently consulting with stakeholders on this.

The National Adaptation Programme is the Government’s strategy to address the main risks and opportunities identified for England and is reviewed every five years. DEFRA is now in the process of gathering evidence for the next review to be released in June 2023.

COVID has taught us that we should always be prepared for an unexpected external shock that will disrupt our normal business operations.

Resilience First has been working with our members, CIS Security, on our Operational Resilience guide, focusing on Preparation. The full report is now available but let’s look at some of the key messages that we can learn from their experience of the pandemic and what preparation meant to them.

If the pandemic did nothing else, it certainly provided a renewed focus on how we work. For some people, this was a radical change – their home became their office and their private and professional lives became entwined. Now – with COVID still about but not the same restrictions – these workers have fallen into a hybrid situation with often informal guidance on what that means.

Resilience First is delighted to announce the appointment of a new Executive Director, Martyn Link.

Effective 1 September Martyn has joined Resilience First. He will enhance our development for the benefit of members and the wider networks to continue to build business community resilience.

We were deeply saddened to learn of the passing of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II and offer our deepest condolences to the Royal Family at this difficult time.

As people around the world are mourning this great loss, we would like to thank Her Majesty for her dedication, service, and extraordinary resilience throughout the seven decades of her reign.

Greater Manchester is made up of ten districts which includes two cities, Manchester and Salford. The region has a population of almost 3 million people and represents the biggest economic area in the UK outside of London.
It’s been at the core of resilience thinking for the last 20 years and released its own Resilience Strategy in 2021.
Its population is predicted to grow by 10% over the next 20 years. This will require around 179,000 new homes in the region by 2037.
Can it remain resilient in light of such significant growth and what can other cities learn about urban growth from the Greater Manchester story?

Convenience foods have been around a lot longer than we might imagine. By their nature they reflect work practices of a given time as they’ve always been about keeping productivity going. As a barometer of resilience, there is much that convenience foods can tell us.

As the climate changes, physical risks brought on by heat waves, flooding, wildfires, droughts and hurricanes will have a greater, sustained impact on businesses. Direct damage to assets or supply chain disruption could mean significant financial consequences.

Collaboration between the private and public sector has never been more vital for building climate resilience.

The recent raid by German police and financial regulators on the offices in Frankfurt of DWS – the majority-owned Deutsche Bank asset manager – has made everyone sit up and take notice of Environment, Social & Governance (ESG). Latest news stories of celebrities and football teams using up carbon for what many feel was unnecessary travel is further example that people are giving a greater green scrutiny to those in the public domain.

Resilience First was privileged recently to have NATO’s former Deputy Assistant Secretary General, Dr Jamie Shea, speak at one of our regular Leader’s Forums. He gave us his perspectives on the NATO approach to the Russia/Ukraine conflict and shared with us the four key lessons we are learning from it.

Resilience First is delighted to join the ICSI’s Board of Directors, with Tom Lewis as its representative.

ICSI is an engineering-led coalition with the aim to make resilience and sustainability a cornerstone of every decision in the infrastructure lifecycle of every community around the globe.

Resilience First and ICSI have been working together to speed up the implementation of sustainable and resilient infrastructure.