Building Disaster Resilience across Canadian Business Supply Chains

Building disaster resilience across Canadian business supply chains: A co-produced innovation tool for understanding, planning and investing in climate change adaptation 

In the last decade, it has become clear that the impacts of climate change are starting to severely affect the natural environment, economy, and communities across the globe. The changing global climate presents significant risks, including extreme temperatures, floods, wildfires, and hurricanes. For Canadian businesses and their international partners, supply systems that can withstand or adapt to these changes will be essential for building resilient societies. 

The Building Disaster Resilience Across Canadian Business Supply Chains project, led by the Climate Institute in partnership with the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction for the Americas and the Caribbean (UNDRR), Trade Facilitation Office Canada (TFO Canada), and the Private Sector Alliance for Disaster Resilient Societies (ARISE Canada), aims to develop and test tools that help Canadian businesses invest in climate adaptation. The focus is on strengthening supply systems—not only at the company level, but also at critical points throughout the broader supply chain. 

It is crucial to plan for and invest in disaster preparedness across the entire supply chain, both within Canada and abroad. This approach takes a systems perspective to understand how different parts of supply chains are interconnected and how risks are shared. This method will help develop mechanisms for cross-sector and multi-actor partnerships, strategies, and cooperation, enabling better planning for the future. 

The insights gained from this project will guide swift and effective adaptation actions and improve investment strategies to address a range of potential disasters. Ultimately, the aim to create policy recommendations that will help supply chains proactively respond to rapidly evolving climate risks. 

Multi-hazards along supply systems

Multi-hazards along supply systems

The private sector is essential to transformative processes necessary to build a future with environmental integrity, social inclusivity, and resilience. The activities of the private sector are structured and driven by their business model, which is at its core a set of assumptions about how a business creates, extracts, and delivers value.  As the planet's climate is changing, so is the way we understand business and conceptualize systems with increased exposure and vulnerability to climate associated risks.

As we continue to observe the impacts of climate change on communities in Canada and across the globe, it has become clear that the way we think about business strategy, investment, and partnerships must evolve to truly create resilient economies and societies. This project seeks to better understand supply systems, map shared risks between companies and communities, and generate evidence to design multi-actor climate adaptation strategies for long-term sustainability.

Dr. Jose DiBella, Principal Investigator

Waterloo Climate Institute member contributions

Jose DiBella headshot

Jose Di Bella

Manager of Research and Partnerships; Adjunct Assistant Professor, Geography and Environmental Management

Jose Di Bella is the manager of research and partnerships at the Waterloo Climate Institute. Jose works closely with the Institutes’ researchers, partners and collaborators to advance community engaged research. He also leads the Institute’s research development strategy and knowledge mobilization programs. Jose’s experience includes a significant international focus on the social and economic aspects of climate change adaptation and disaster risk reduction, as well as the design and implementation of climate and sustainability strategies. Jose is also an Adjunct Assistant Professor in the department of Geography and Environmental Management.

Sarah Burch headshot

Sarah Burch

Executive Director, Waterloo Climate Institute; Professor, Geography and Environmental Management; Canada Research Chair (On Leave)

Sarah Burch is an expert in transformative responses to climate change at the community scale, innovative strategies for making progress on sustainability, and the unique contributions that small businesses can make to this solving this complex challenge.

Simon Glauser

Simon Glauser

Managing Director

Simon Glauser is the managing director of the Waterloo Climate Institute. He oversees the strategic planning and operations, and the development of the organization’s membership and partnerships.

Michele Martin headshot

Michèle Martin

Training Program Specialist; Adjunct Assistant Professor, Geography and Environmental Management

Michèle Martin is the training program specialist at the Waterloo Climate Institute. Her role is to support university-wide climate change educational programming, as well as to advance and coordinate external professional development and training opportunities. Michele has over thirty years' experience in sustainability and climate change education and capacity building in Canada and internationally and holds a PhD in Environmental Studies from York University. 

Thy Huynh headshot

Thy Huynh

Graduate Research Assistant

Thy Huynh is a graduate research assistant at the Waterloo Climate Institute, working on a project to facilitate interdisciplinary communications and collaboration while advancing the groundwork for interdisciplinary grant proposals. Thy is a recent graduate from the master’s program in the School of Environment, Resources and Sustainability and is interested in exploring the intersections of public health and climate change.

Darren Wynes headshot

Darren Wynes

Project Coordinator

Darren Wynes is the Project Coordinator at the Waterloo Climate Institute. He is responsible for assisting in the implementation of the Institute’s projects and activities, project administration, event logistics, and financial support. He has a background in finance and recently completed a Masters in Environmental Studies and Graduate Diploma in Climate Risk Management at UWaterloo.

Headshot of Yuki Yeung

Yuki Yeung

Graduate Research Assistant

Yuki Yeung is a graduate research assistant at the Waterloo Climate Institute supporting the research project Building Disaster Resilience Across Supply Chains: A co-produced innovation model for understanding, planning and investing in climate change adaptation”. She is currently a PhD student in the Department of Geography and Environmental Management (GoHelP Lab), and completed her Bachelor of Environmental Studies and Diploma in Geographic Information Systems at the University of Waterloo (2023). Her research interests include: Climate change impacts on human health and wellbeing, and climate change adaptation.

Project Partners

  • United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction of the Americas and the Caribbean 

  • Private Sector Alliance for Disaster Resilient Societies ARISE Canada 

  • Trade Facilitation Office Canada 

Project details
Status:
Project time line
May 1, 2024 to April 1, 2026