Will RichardsonHead of EcoSystems and Networks, 51toCarbonZero · Sustainability & Net-Zero Strategy Leader | Helping £100m+ Enterprises Cut Climate Risk & Operating Costs | Head of EcoSystems & Networks | Host of Sustainability Solved Podcast

The insurance companies have already decided — how boards should respond to climate risk now

9 Jun 2026 · 5 min

Open source

Sustainability Solved by Will Richardson

9 Jun 2026 · 5 min

0:00

In this podcast episode, host Will Richardson reflects on two decades of experience with ISO 14001 and argues that traditional risk management frameworks are no longer sufficient in the face of escalating climate-related threats. He explains how ISO 14001 helped organizations identify and integrate environmental aspects and impacts into a systematic risk model, effectively giving them a "crystal ball" to anticipate future challenges. Richardson then highlights recent developments that signal a shift in the risk landscape: major insurance companies are withdrawing coverage in the US, UK, and globally; catastrophic disruptions are hitting food, beverage, and other supply chains; and new political and legislative actions are reshaping the operating environment. He contends that these external pressures are forcing risk to "bubble up" and demand a new lens for board-level decision‑making. The episode concludes with a brief promotion for Richardson’s Substack, which curates sustainability news and translates complex issues into practical guidance for businesses.

Chapters

Hey, thanks so much for listening. I would love to be able to help you more on what it is that you are listening to and why you're listening to me. If you could click on the link in the show notes, that would be awesome because it will help me define what it is that we should be talking about on this podcast. I don't know about you, but I feel that There is so much stuff going on in the news at the moment that is almost a crescendo to what it is that we've been talking about over the last, God, 2 decades or whatever. But when I first started doing ISO 14001, I looked at what an organization was reducing and how they were reducing it within that standard, aka system. You also had to highlight the impacts and aspects of an organization, and quite early on we started. integrating risk into the model of that organization, largely because I think it was really useful for the organization to understand what the future held for them. And it was almost like giving them a crystal ball to review and look and understand what the future will entail. Fairly recently, and I don't know if this is my bubble or if this is the world over, but, or the interpretation of what it is that we are doing. But the fact that there are insurance companies that are not insuring people in the US and the UK and all over the world, the fact that we are seeing such catastrophic events within food and beverage, within other supply chains, and the fact that we are seeing things being turned upside down by new politicians or new legislation. Et cetera. And the risk almost, I feel like it's bubbling up to the top and it's coming out, it's spitting out. It's like, this is risk here, this is risk there, this is risk there. And I feel that we're almost being told by our environment and the external variables That we should be looking at risk in a very different lens than we have done historically, because now we're seeing the ramifications of risk. Does that make sense?
Grab free access to Will's Substack while it lasts. Every week we pull together the top sustainability stories from dozens of trusted sources, Then he breaks down the big issues facing business right now in plain, practical terms. Link in the description.