Business Continuity is the protection and recovery of critical services and activities in the event of a major disruption. Disruptions can come in all shapes and sizes, but with the onset of climate change, many disruptions nowadays are environmental such as:
Flooding
Heatwaves
Hurricanes
Tornados
Incidents such as these can disrupt an organisation in a variety of ways:
Loss of access to property
Power failure
IT failure
Inability of staff to come to work
Failure of a key supplier.
Therefore, as the climate becomes more unpredictable, we must become better prepared to protect critical businesses and services from disruption. The key to this is preparing business continuity plans.
If you have not yet completed a plan then the Joint Emergency Planning Unit for Suffolk can provide you with advice and assistance. You can also join a network of businesses designed to provide mutual aid in a crisis. Further details are available on the Suffolk Resilience website. Alternatively you can download their information booklet on business continuity in Suffolk for small to medium sized enterprises.
Business Continuity Management (BCM)
BSI have just published BS 25999-1:2006 which is aimed at helping organisations minimise the impacts of everyday and extreme events. Learn more about Business Continuity Management.
