As a continent at the forefront of extreme heat, wildfires, and drought, Australia offers unique lessons for U.S. employers navigating climate risk.
When extreme weather hits, the costs show up in places we may expect — emergency rooms, damaged infrastructure, absenteeism — and in places we don't always count, such as increases in chronic disease, disruptions to medication access, and the mental health toll of disaster recovery. Climate resilience is the capacity to prepare for, respond to, and recover from hazardous events and stresses related to climate change.
For those in healthcare like me, it is also a framework for reducing preventable harm and supporting our patients and community through climate-related events.
One of the more novel places to look for evidence of that work is in corporate climate reports. A recent study in The Journal of Climate Change and Health offers a window into what companies are actually saying, and doing, about the health impacts of climate change.
Researchers at Macquarie University examined the standalone climate reports of Australia's top 500 publicly traded corporations, published between September 2023 and April 2024. Approximately 10 percent of those companies published a climate report, and they tended to be larger corporations and those with higher emissions.
The researchers analyzed 51 reports, searching for a dictionary of health-related words and then identifying where they were: impact, mitigation, or adaptation.
50 of the 51 reports mentioned at least one health-related word, but the distribution tells a more specific story about what companies see as their health concern.
"Safety" appeared in 69% of reports, and the cluster of "depression, anxiety, or stress" appeared in 63%. Alternatively, "heat stress" or "heat stroke" appeared in 24% of reports, and "air pollution" or "air quality" appeared in only 18%. Vector-borne and food-borne diseases were almost absent. The picture that emerges is one where companies most often discuss health in terms of occupational safety. Two-thirds of reports described concrete adaptation actions, fewer than half mentioned the health co-benefits of emissions reductions, and no single report covered all three dimensions — impacts, adaptation, and mitigation co-benefits — together.
The concrete examples companies list in their climate reports are instructive. For outdoor work, they reported:
In commercial buildings, they used:
One telecommunications company described a risk-based approach to monitoring and managing the safety and wellbeing of employees and contractors, with explicit arrangements for exposure to extreme heat. An energy company noted that sun protection and hydration are regularly included as topics in site communications and safety briefings, particularly at facilities in regions with high ambient temperatures.
These are practical, protective measures embedded in formal corporate planning alongside emissions targets. They are also, in most cases, extensions of existing workplace health and safety infrastructure rather than new climate-specific programs.
Preparation and the evaluation of risk and vulnerability are core clinical skills. In the context of climate resilience, they take on new applications.
In a clinic, this can look like identifying which patients may lack transportation options if needed for evacuation, determining who should be counseled on staying safe during days of poor air quality due to underlying medical conditions, and considering which patients should adjust their medication regimens on days of higher heat to reduce the risk of dehydration or heat-related illness.
This work can also be implemented at a broader, population-based level. Consider the value of a mass message to all patients with essential medications due for refill in advance of a known hurricane, advising them to refill before the storm arrives. That kind of proactive, population-level outreach is well within the capabilities of modern healthcare systems and can meaningfully reduce harm.
Adults spend far more time at work than they do in the doctor’s office, and in many cases more time than they spend at home. Health guidance and resources delivered through an employer therefore have a reach and an immediacy that the clinical encounter alone cannot match. As extreme weather continues, and intensifies, the workplace will be an increasingly important setting for protecting health.
What the Australian study makes visible is that many companies are already doing this work, but there is still ample room for improvement. Climate resilience is not solely the domain of sustainability officers or emergency planners. It belongs in the exam room and on the worksite, and the work of building it is already underway in places worth learning from.
Extreme Weather + Work is an initiative of the Health Action Alliance. We bring together leaders who rarely sit in the same room and connect them with peers across industries, giving them the research and tools they need to support their people before, during, and after extreme weather. Sign up for our monthly newsletter to stay up to date on our latest events, resources, and recommendations. For deeper support, tools, and a peer community, explore Extreme Weather + Work membership.
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