Climate Resilience: Perspectives from North America, Europe, and Oceania
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How can businesses move beyond awareness of climate risk to take meaningful, region-specific action?
In this episode of Rethinking EHS, join expert voices from North America, Europe, and Oceania as they unpack the evolving climate risk landscape and explore the tools, strategies, and forward-looking planning essential for resilience.
While the groundwork of climate resilience is longstanding, today’s dynamic environmental and regulatory backdrop demands updated approaches—across continents. Hear about innovations in risk assessment technology, regional vulnerabilities, and how organizations can build strategic responses that endure.
Featured Guests
- James Hughes – Technical Director, Climate + Resilience, Tonkin + Taylor (NZ)
- Laura Kirkvold – Sustainability Working Group Leader, Inogen Alliance + Consultant, Antea Group USA
- Audrey Beattie – Senior Manager, Sustainability Practice, Antea Group USA
- Michalis Lellis – Water & Environmental Specialist, Baden Consulting (Switzerland)
Together, they share cutting-edge insights into regional climate challenges, data-driven solutions, and the strategic tools paving the way for resilience in 2025.
Episode Highlights
- (01:51) Diverse climate challenges across North America, Europe, and Oceania
- (07:09) Translating climate risk assessments into actionable strategies
- (10:45) Building resilience: from now into 2025 and beyond
- (25:39) Technologies and tools for real-time monitoring and predictive planning
- (34:05) Key takeaways from Phil and Laura
Voices from the Episode
“Uncertainty is the key thing we’re talking about here… climate change is making hazards non-stationary meaning their characteristics are changing over time, rather than remaining constant.”— James Hughes
“The key is being able to connect climate-related risks to business impacts… how does a risk actually show up in their operations and also critically in their supply chain?”— Audrey Beattie
“The integration of real-time environmental monitoring with predictive modeling… allows companies to act proactively, preventing damage, reducing downtime, and protecting both communities and the environment.”— Michalis Lellis
“Scenario analysis is now a tool that is newer to us… but so few companies are actually leveraging that information.”— Laura Kirkvold
Why this matters for Aotearoa
As climate variability accelerates across the globe, the capability to interpret regional data and take targeted action is essential. From flood-prone zones in New Zealand to complex supply chain disruptions, proactive planning—including real-time monitoring and scenario analysis—is critical for safeguarding project timelines, infrastructure, supply continuity, and community well-being.
BONUS EPISODE: Climate Resilience in Healthcare – Perspectives from New Zealand
In this follow-up to our last episode on climate resilience, Host Laura Kirkvold, Sustainability Working Group Leader with Inogen Alliance and Consultant with Antea Group USA, sits down with James Hughes, Technical Director for Climate and Resilience and Strategic Consulting at Tonkin + Taylor to elaborate on the topic, with a focus on the healthcare sector in New Zealand. James highlights the interconnection between environmental challenges and systemic disparities, including access to healthcare in a timely manner.
Episode Highlights
- (00:29) Tonkin + Taylor’s report: Key findings
- (04:09) How the healthcare context is unique
- (08:38) How climate risk exacerbates inequities
- (11:26) Recommendations for companies
“ When you start looking at the broader, interconnected issues with delivering a healthcare system over the long term, and that requires, obviously funding from government, ongoing improvements to the healthcare system, at the same time at which climate change impacts are not only affecting the healthcare system, but the broader economy. You can quite plausibly develop scenarios where all those things coincide in a very difficult situation and problematic situation where funding goes down, climate impacts go up and, for example, waiting times increase, more people transition to private healthcare, if they can afford it,” – James Hughes, Tonkin + Taylor
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Listen to season one episodes:
