A Unified Front: Business Partnerships for Effective Disaster Preparedness, Response, and Recovery

Over the past 15 years, the Corporate Citizenship Center (CCC) has worked with companies to identify strategies and best practices for dealing with disasters. Companies are often in a unique position to help during all phases of disasters, as they have reach into communities that other partners, like governments and nonprofits, do not have. Whether it is working with their employees (who could number in the hundreds of thousands) on preparedness, helping prepare their supply chain of small businesses, working with local community organizations, or getting back up and running quickly to service the market, companies are an integral part of the disaster relief process.

But companies are only part of the process. An overarching theme in many of the articles in this year’s report is that a unified effort is needed to effectively manage the unexpected difficulties that arise as a result of disasters. The report, A Unified Front: Business Partnerships for Effective Disaster Preparedness, Response, and Recovery, shows that we are all in this together. Unless we work together, we won’t see the type of disruptive change that can truly reduce the impact of disasters.

The report also discusses a number of trends that are critical to reducing the impact of disasters. These trends include the following:

• Employee safety and security
• Non-traditional disaster management (such as the Ebola outbreak and the refugee crisis)
• Mobile technology solutions
• Data analytics for crisis mitigation
• Strategies for multi-sector partnerships

In addition to the full report, we'll be featuring each article on our Blog.

Download the report here.

The views expressed herein are those of the author and do not necessarily state or reflect those of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, or its affiliates.