Invest in building resilience with the communities you serve  - Business in the Community

Invest in building resilience with the communities you serve 

FUTUREPROOFING BUSINESS RECOMMENDATION THREE

Invest in building resilience with the communities you serve 

Use your investment, purchasing power and partnerships to strengthen community resilience and support shared prosperity. 

About Futureproofing Business Resources

Table of Contents

Introduction

Businesses depend on the resilience of the places where they operate, employ people, serve customers and source goods and services. 

BITC’s Creating a Future Ready Economy report calls on businesses to invest in building resilience with the communities they serve, using purchasing power and partnerships to support fair and sustainable practices across suppliers.1 This includes supporting SMEs and social enterprises to build resilience to shocks and benefit from opportunities linked to transition, as well as enabling local ownership of assets such as renewable energy, retrofit and nature-based projects. 

Why does this matter for your business?

The Climate Change Committee says adaptation is needed now to prepare the UK for today’s extreme weather and the increasing severity of future climate risks[2].  

BITC’s Creating a Future Ready Economy report identifies future-ready communities as a key part of a future-ready economy. It calls for investment to be directed where it is most needed, and for businesses to maximise the value of their time, money, expertise and purchasing power to help communities build resilience. 

For businesses, community resilience can be treated as a strategic issue because local workforces, customers, infrastructure, suppliers, public services, housing, transport, energy systems and natural assets all shape the operating context for business. 

Risks and opportunities

Businesses rely on the places around them. If local communities are under pressure, this can affect staff wellbeing, recruitment, customer demand, local suppliers, transport, public services and the day-to-day running of sites. 

 These risks are already visible: the Office for National Statistics (ONS) data found that nearly three-quarters of adults in Great Britain had been affected by at least one climate-related impact in the previous 12 months[3]. The Climate Change Committee has also estimated that significant investment is needed to prepare the UK for climate impacts[4].  

There are also procurement and supply chain risks: the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) analysis highlights the need for agile, adaptable and aligned supply chains[5], while the UK Government’s Social Value Model shows growing expectations that procurement should deliver wider social and economic benefits[6]. 

The opportunity is to use business spending, investment and partnerships to strengthen the places a business depends on. This could include buying from local SMEs and social enterprises, supporting local skills programmes, helping suppliers reduce energy costs, investing in retrofit or community energy, and backing nature-based solutions that reduce flooding and heat while improving local places. 

Actions by maturity level

The sections below bring together suggested actions and relevant resources for each maturity level, helping business understand what action may be needed and which BITC resources can support them.  

Adopting

At the adopting stage, organisations are building awareness, understanding the issue and identifying where to start. 

Suggested Actions

  • Map the communities most connected to your operations, supply chains, customers and workforce. 
  • Identify where your business already invests time, money, procurement spend or expertise locally. 
  • Understand the resilience challenges facing those communities, such as energy costs, skills gaps, climate risk or local economic insecurity. 
  • Begin conversations with local partners, SMEs, social enterprises and community organisations. 

Resources to support action

Nature and Resilience Insights Briefing

Explains how nature supports resilience and why damage to ecosystems can increase risks for communities and businesses. 

  • Use if: You need a simple starting point for conversations about nature, resilience and local environmental shocks.
  • What you’ll get: Plain-English definitions, examples of weakened resilience and an explanation of ecosystem services and natural capital.
  • How to use to create impact: Use as a pre-read with colleagues or local partners; agree which local risks, such as heat, flooding or water quality, matter most.
Learn more

Embedding

At the embedding stage, organisations are integrating future-ready action into governance, processes, decision-making and delivery. 

Suggested Actions

  • Use procurement to support fair, sustainable and local suppliers where possible. 
  • Build relationships with SMEs and social enterprises, including support to help them access opportunities. 
  • Align community investment with business strategy, climate action and social value priorities. 
  • Track how business activity contributes to local resilience, skills, livelihoods and environmental outcomes. 

Resources to support action

Powering Local Change: Community Action for a Just Transition

Offers practical examples of community-led projects that deliver visible benefits, helping businesses design and invest in resilience with local partners. 

  • Use if: You need examples of community projects with visible benefits (for example, warmer homes, lower bills, local jobs).
  • What you’ll get: Compilation of five best-practice examples connected to the Community Climate Fund (now named Futureproofing Communities Programme), suitable for inspiration and storytelling.
  • How to use to create impact: Pick one case study type that fits your footprint; list what resources, partners and funding would be required to replicate.
Learn more
Managing Emissions in the Supply Chain 

Helps procurement teams engage suppliers to reduce emissions and build capability, using purchasing power to raise standards and strengthen supply chain resilience. 

  • Use if: You need a practical approach for scope 3 supplier engagement and emissions reduction.
  • What you’ll get: A three-part approach to know (measure/map/target), grow (engage suppliers), and go (reduce emissions via projects and investment).
  • How to use to create impact: Choose one supplier category; define what data you need (Know) and one engagement mechanism (Grow) to trial this quarter
Learn more
The Business Case for Circular Procurement 

Enables procurement-led circular practices that reduce resource demand and supply risk, helping scale sustainable practices across suppliers and value chains. 

  • Use if: You want practical steps and priority product categories for applying circular principles through procurement.
  • What you’ll get: Guidance on circular procurement, including priority categories and practical steps to implement circular principles and capture business benefits.
  • How to use to create impact: Pick one product category (for example, IT, furniture, fit-out); list three circular requirements you can add to tender specs.
Learn more

Leading

At the leading stage, organisations are scaling action, influencing others and sharing learning across suppliers, partners and peers. 

Suggested Actions

  • Collaborate with local authorities, community organisations, suppliers and other businesses on place-based priorities. 
  • Support projects that deliver multiple benefits, such as lower bills, good jobs, nature recovery and local wealth-building. 
  • Share evidence of what works and help suppliers or partners adopt fairer, more resilient practices. 
  • Use your influence to strengthen local economies and support a just transition in the places most affected by change. 

Resources to support action

Community Climate Fund: One Year On Impact Report 2024/25 

Provides evidence and learning from business-community investment models that build resilience and deliver tangible local benefits, supporting replication and scaling through partnerships. 

  • Use if: You want examples and outcomes from business-community investment that tackles climate and cost-of-living together.
  • What you’ll get: Impact story and learning from the Community Climate Fund (now named Futureproofing Communities Programme), including examples of local pilots and intended scale-up.
  • How to use to create impact: Use two to three outcomes and one lesson to make the internal case for place-based resilience investment; identify a candidate place partner.
Learn more
Circular Fitout Lab Actions Statement  

Enables Recommendation 3 by giving a practical actions inventory to change fit-out procurement and delivery decisions (demand signals, specifications, reuse models), helping purchasing power shift markets and reduce waste and emissions. 

  • Use if: Your organisation is fitting out a building, and you want to use the opportunity to create resilience in the built environment.
  • What you’ll get: An inventory of organisational barriers and a set of actions internal changemakers can take, categorised across project stages.
  • How to use to create impact: Identify your current project stage and assign an owner for each action to trial. 
Learn more

Transforming

At the transforming stage, organisations are helping reshape markets, places or systems so that people, nature and business can thrive together. 

Suggested Actions

  • Support democratic or shared ownership models, such as community or employee shares in renewable energy, retrofit or nature-based projects. 
  • Help create long-term investment models that keep value within communities. 
  • Work with partners to remove barriers that prevent SMEs, social enterprises and communities from benefiting from transition opportunities. 
  • Advocate for approaches to growth that build wealth, resilience and pride in place while restoring the health of nature. 

Resources to support action

Nature-based Solutions to the Climate Emergency – IGNITION project 

Supports Recommendation 3 by showing how place-based nature-based solutions can build community resilience and deliver tangible local benefits (reduced risk, health/wellbeing, local economic opportunity) through cross-sector partnership and investment. 

  • Use if: You want to invest with partners in nature-based solutions that improve climate resilience and community outcomes while supporting local growth.
  • What you’ll get: Evidence, examples and learning from the IGNITION project on delivering nature-based solutions in cities, including the case for investment, delivery models and partnership lessons to unlock co-benefits for people and place.
  • How to use to create impact: Identify two to three interventions relevant to your places, map expected co-benefits, then shortlist partners (councils, NGOs, funders) and a first convening action.
Learn more
Joint Statements of Demand (JSDs) – collective purchasing power for circular procurement 

Directly supports Recommendation 3 by enabling businesses to collaborate as buyers and use collective demand signals to change supplier markets, scaling fair and sustainable practice and supporting innovation that benefits wider society. 

  • Use if: You want to go beyond ‘one-company’ procurement changes and collaborate with other buyers to drive circular products and services into the mainstream.
  • What you’ll get: A set of co-created buyer commitments and supplier ‘asks’ for specific product categories, plus an understanding of how joint procurement asks can help overcome knowledge, market and influence barriers through collective action.
  • How to use to create impact:  Select a relevant product category, review the buyer commitments and ‘asks’, then plan how to incorporate them into your next tender (and consider if there are any other companies you could collaborate with to agree to the same criteria).
Learn more

References

1. Business in the Community. (2025) Creating a Future Ready Economy. Available at: https://www.bitc.org.uk/report/creating-a-future-ready-economy/ (Accessed: 1 June 2026).

2. Climate Change Committee. (2025) Progress in adapting to climate change: 2025 report to Parliament. Available at: https://www.theccc.org.uk/publication/progress-in-adapting-to-climate-change-2025/ (Accessed: 1 June 2026).

3. Office for National Statistics. (2025) Public opinions and social trends, Great Britain: October 2025. Available at: https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/wellbeing/bulletins/publicopinionsandsocialtrendsgreatbritain/october2025 (Accessed: 1 June 2026).

4. Climate Change Committee. (2026) A Well-Adapted UK. Available at: https://www.theccc.org.uk/publication/a-well-adapted-uk/ (Accessed: 1 June 2026).

5. Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. (2025) OECD Supply Chain Resilience Review: Navigating Risks. Available at: https://www.oecd.org/en/publications/2025/06/oecd-supply-chain-resilience-review_9930d256.html (Accessed: 1 June 2026).

6. Cabinet Office. (2025) PPN 002: Taking account of social value in the award of contracts. Available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/ppn-002-taking-account-of-social-value-in-the-award-of-contracts (Accessed: 9 June 2026).

Explore the other Futureproofing Business recommendations

Recommendation ONE

Invest in building resilience with the communities you serve 

Make sure climate, nature, social inclusion, and resilience are recognised within business models, embedding responsible business into core strategy rather than treating it as an add-on.

Learn More
Recommendation two

Co-create transition plans with stakeholders 

Involve employees, young people, supply chains and wider communities in developing transition plans. Move from top-down consultation to genuine co-design, ensuring benefits such as warmer homes, lower bills and local jobs are tangible and visible. 

Learn More

Thank you to Royal London

These resources have been collated by Business in the Community with support from Royal London, building on the insights and recommendations from the Creating a Future Ready Economy report.