The Climate-Integrated Enterprise
Climate Integration Diagnostic
Is climate built into the decisions that shape your business plan?
Climate-related pressures are now shaping costs, supply chains, regulation, capital access and long-term competitive position. The Climate Integration Diagnostic helps leadership teams find where those pressures are not yet built into the decisions that matter and what needs to change.
Why the diagnostic is needed
Having climate commitments, transition plans and reporting programmes is not the same as having climate-related pressures built into the decisions that shape business performance. In many businesses, strategy assumptions, investment cases and governance forums still do not fully reflect energy volatility, carbon exposure, water stress, supply chain fragility or physical climate risk.
The pattern is predictable. Strategy plans may mention climate risk but not adjust their market, cost or growth assumptions. Investment cases are approved without sensitivity testing for carbon cost, energy exposure or resilience requirements. Transition plans are prepared for disclosure but never reconciled with annual budgets or delivery capacity. Trade-offs are resolved informally because no governance forum owns the intersection of commercial and sustainability decisions.
The result is a business plan that may look coherent on paper but is carrying risks, constraints or opportunities that have not been properly surfaced, assessed or acted on.
The diagnostic is designed to find these gaps, test which ones are material, and identify the specific changes most likely to fix them.
When to use the diagnostic
It is particularly relevant when:
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Climate commitments exist, but their influence on business decisions is unclear.
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The transition plan exists, but ownership, funding, sequencing or dependencies are uncertain.
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Strategy, finance and sustainability teams are working from different assumptions.
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Investment cases do not consistently reflect carbon, resilience, regulation or resource constraints.
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Reporting activity is increasing, but not yet improving management decisions.
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Leaders suspect climate-related pressures may affect the business plan, but do not yet have a clear view of where the most material weaknesses sit.
Who it is for
The diagnostic is designed for Strategy Directors, Chief Sustainability Officers and senior leaders responsible for planning, investment, transformation, operations, risk, procurement or performance management.
It is especially useful where leaders can see that climate and natural-resource issues are becoming material, but are not yet confident that these issues are built into the organisation’s core planning, governance and decision-making systems.
What it tells you
The diagnostic is designed to move from broad concern to specific, evidence-based findings.
It helps answer the following questions:
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Where in the business plan is climate-related pressure most likely to create a material gap?
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Which of those gaps are actually present, evidenced and material in this organisation?
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Which organisational capabilities - planning, governance, finance, data, ownership - are missing or weak?
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What specific changes to planning, governance and decision-making are needed?
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Which practical interventions should be implemented first, and in what sequence?
The output is a board-ready view of the material gaps, where the business plan is most exposed, the confidence level behind each finding, and which planning, governance or delivery improvements should be prioritised first.
What the diagnostic covers
The diagnostic can be focused on a specific decision area, business unit or planning cycle, or used as a broader review of climate integration across the organisation.
It typically covers strategy assumptions, transition plan credibility, capital allocation and investment appraisal, governance and decision rights, supply chain and operational resilience, and management reporting and data. Scope is agreed at the start based on where the most material issues are likely to sit.
The diagnostic uses three linked lenses. Together, they help identify where the business plan may be exposed, which weaknesses are material, and what organisational capabilities are missing.
Business plan
weaknesses
This lens maps where climate, carbon, energy, water, nature, supply chain and resource realities may expose incomplete assumptions, unresolved trade-offs, mis-priced investment cases, delivery risk or missed value.
Materiality
and evidence
This lens tests which weaknesses are actually present, which decisions they affect, how material they are, what evidence supports the finding, and how urgent the response may be.
Climate integration capability
This lens assesses which planning, governance, finance, data, ownership, delivery and decision-making capabilities need to be strengthened or built.
How it works
The Climate Integration Diagnostic is designed to be focused, evidence-based and practical. It moves from broad concern to clear priorities, then into the specific planning, governance and decision-making changes that would help the organisation respond.
1.
Diagnose
Identify where climate and natural-resource pressures may be exposing weaknesses in the business plan.
This includes the assumptions, investment choices, governance forums, delivery routines and data used to make decisions. The work starts by agreeing the scope, reviewing relevant business materials and building an initial view of where the most material pressure points may sit.
2.
Prioritise
Test which issues are real, evidenced and material.
Findings are assessed by business implication, decision-system weakness, timing and confidence. This avoids producing a generic maturity score or a long list of climate actions. The focus is on the few issues most likely to affect performance, resilience, capital allocation, transition credibility or strategic choice.
3.
Design
Translate priority findings into practical changes to the way the organisation plans, decides and delivers.
These may include changes to planning assumptions, investment criteria, budget processes, governance forums, decision rights, management reporting, ownership, data flows or delivery routines. The aim is to strengthen the existing management system, not create a parallel climate process.
4.
Mobilise
Agree the first actions needed to move from diagnosis to progress.
This includes confirming owners, sequencing the response and identifying the first 90-day actions. Where issues require deeper specialist analysis, such as physical-risk modelling, supply-chain assessment or technical due diligence, these are identified clearly rather than treated as assumptions.
The diagnostic is structured around four proprietary frameworks:
Business Plan Weakness Framework. Maps 13 decision areas and 66 specific pressure points across strategy, financial planning, operations, governance and delivery. Used to identify where the business plan may be exposed.
Climate Integration Diagnostic Workbook. 40 diagnostic questions, an evidence log, domain scoring and a findings heatmap. Creates a traceable evidence chain from document review and interviews through to prioritised findings.
Climate Integration Assessment. 64 capability items across nine organisational areas. Helps explain why a weakness may exist by identifying which planning, governance, finance, data or delivery capability is missing or insufficient.
Ways-of-Working Intervention Library. 30 practical activities mapped to the planning cycle, with adoption difficulty ratings and regulatory cross-references. Translates findings into specific, implementable changes.
The frameworks provide structure. The advisory work applies judgement to each organisation's actual strategy, operating model, governance and delivery context.
What happens next
The diagnostic is not intended to produce a long list of climate actions. Its purpose is to identify the small number of decision-system changes most likely to improve business resilience, performance and credibility. These may include changes to planning assumptions, investment criteria, governance forums, decision rights, management reporting, ownership, data flows or delivery routines.
Depending on the findings, support can include senior advisory input, facilitated leadership sessions, action planning and support to embed agreed changes into the way the organisation plans, decides and delivers.
Start a conversation
If you want to understand where climate-related pressures may be creating gaps in your business plan, the diagnostic provides a focused, evidence-based way to find out.
The first step is a short conversation to answer any questions you may have and to understand your context and confirm whether the timing is right. There is no commitment beyond that.