Brands must reshape the way in which they conduct business, so as to adapt to extreme weather conditions, safeguarding the health and safety of their workers.
In the wake of the summer heatwave that suffocated the Pacific North-West of the United States, Grain, a Washington state based furniture company, sent an email to its customers, which read:
“In this moment we are pondering what measures we must take in order to adapt to the climate crisis. What are the temperatures and volumes of smoke that are considered to be safe for our workers? How many days can we remain closed, each summer, due to the heat and/or smoke, all the while respecting our delivery times and prices? What types of air filtration systems, or other means, can we implement in order to protect our employees?”
These are the types of questions that employers must ponder in order to conduct business in the midst of climate concerns.
According to research published by the journal, Climate Change, up to 1.8 billion hours of manpower, or approximately 11 hours per individual worker in the US, could be lost every year, for the next three decades, as a result of the extreme heat caused by the climate crisis.
Companies may be required, via government regulation, to put business operations on hold, in order to maintain the safety of their employees; in March, a new law was introduced in the US, aimed at protecting workers from conditions of extreme heat, including paid cooling breaks.
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