Climate Resilience: A Practical Advantage for Small Businesses
By Joyce Coffee and Robert Macnee
This post originally appeared in Small Business Currents: https://smallbusinesscurrents.com/2025/09/10/climate-resilience-a-practical-advantage-for-small-businesses/
Running a small business has never been simple—but today, there’s a pervasive and increasingly disruptive challenge that affects nearly every owner, no matter your industry or location: climate disruption. Floods, heatwaves, wildfires, and hurricanes aren’t just environmental issues. They’re business continuity issues that can cut sales, damage property, disrupt staff, and in too many cases, close businesses for good.
Why Resilience Matters for Small Business
Only 26% of small businesses have an actual disaster plan—despite 94% believing they’re ready to handle disasters, according to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation. The good news? With a little foresight, small businesses can turn resilience into a competitive advantage. Customers, insurers, and communities notice when you bounce back quickly. And staying open when others close means more loyalty and market share for you.
Drawing on insights from our book The Resilience Advantage, here are practical steps you can take to future-proof your small business.
Start with Your Top Risks
Every location is vulnerable to something—but don’t overwhelm yourself by trying to prepare for every possible hazard. Focus on the two or three risks most likely to affect your area. Are you near a floodplain? In a wildfire-prone zone? Or facing longer, hotter summers?
Once you know your biggest threats, you can focus resources where they’ll have the most impact. For example, extreme heat is now the most widespread climate hazard affecting small businesses across the U.S., not just those in the Sun Belt. Even relatively high heat spikes in typically cooler places like Portland, Chicago, or Minneapolis can put workers at risk and reduce productivity.
Extreme heat isn’t just uncomfortable—it can cut business hours, strain staff, and damage equipment. A simple heat-response plan can keep your doors open when others close.
Keep Your Information Organized
When disaster strikes, confusion multiplies. That’s why organizing your critical information in advance is one of the simplest, most effective resilience strategies. Store copies of insurance policies, employee and vendor contacts, IT backups, and property photos in cloud-based systems.
Insurers process claims faster when documentation is clear. Emergency responders can coordinate better. And your own decisions will be sharper when you’re not scrambling to remember who has the latest contract or where policies are filed.
Practice Response and Build Partnerships
Don’t wait until you’re in the middle of a disaster to see if your plan works. Run simple tabletop exercises—“What if a flood closed our building tomorrow?”—and walk through who does what. You’ll quickly see what needs fixing, from unclear roles to missing supplies. Resilience also means looking beyond your own walls. Build connections with your local chamber of commerce, emergency managers, and peer businesses. Communities that share alerts, equipment, or even temporary space rebound much faster than those that go it alone.
Prepare for Power Outages and Storms
While heat is the most widespread hazard, hurricane season brings another major risk—even for businesses far from the coast. Hurricanes can disrupt supply chains, fuel prices, and power grids hundreds of miles inland.
Hurricanes don’t just hit the coast, they ripple inland, disrupting supply chains, cutting power, and closing businesses hundreds of miles away. Preparation pays off.
Make Physical Improvements That Last
Resilience often looks like routine maintenance. Replace roofing or HVAC with hazard-resistant options when the time comes. Elevate critical equipment above flood levels. Install shutters or window film that reduces storm damage and cooling costs. These aren’t just expenses—they’re smart capital investments that protect your property and save money in the long run.
Resilience Pays Off
Resilience is not just about protection—it’s about positioning your business for long-term success. Insurers may favor businesses that have continuity plans. Customers will remember that you stayed open for them during a crisis. And employees feel safer and more valued when they see their employer planning for their wellbeing.
Every action, from creating a heat-response protocol to organizing insurance records or testing a backup generator, compounds into a stronger, more trusted business.
Climate change is a reality for every business owner, regardless of their size or location. But small businesses have a unique advantage: agility. You don’t need a 50-page strategy. Just focus on your top risks, take a few practical steps, keep your records organized, and practice response with your team.
The businesses that prepare today won’t just survive tomorrow’s storms and heatwaves—they’ll thrive, earning customer loyalty and community trust in the process. And that’s the resilience advantage that will set you apart.
Joyce Coffee is president, and Robert Macnee is deputy director of Climate Resilience Consulting, where they help small businesses—and the local governments, national nonprofits, and other institutions that support them—prepare and thrive amid climate disruptions.
They are the co-authors of The Resilience Advantage: A Small Business Guide to Preparing for Floods, Heatwaves, Wildfires, and Other Climate Disasters.
Photo courtesy Point Normal for Unsplash+