Critical Thinking: Climate Information in a Business Context
Make better-informed decisions when climate or sustainability information affects your business.
What it is
This template helps teams critically review information that may affect the business’s reputation, operations, people, suppliers, customers, strategy, sustainability performance, or legal responsibilities.
Use it for information from inside or outside the business: employee concerns, board discussions, supplier statements, customer feedback, media stories, social-media posts, marketing claims, rumours, and regulatory updates.
How to use this template
Work through the six stages in order:
Capture the information accurately.
Review the source and why it matters.
Verify the evidence.
Check context, assumptions, and possible misleading framing.
Assess business implications and requirements.
Decide what action to take.
Add notes, evidence, questions, risks, assumptions, and relevant sources as you go. Use the status tracker to show whether each stage is pending, in progress, or complete.
The aim is not to win an argument. It is to reach an informed, proportionate, and constructive business response.
Who it is for
Use this template with sustainability, communications, legal, compliance, procurement, operations, HR, risk, leadership, and board teams. It is particularly useful when information is unclear, contested, fast-moving, or likely to influence an important decision.
What you’ll leave with
A shared understanding of the information, its credibility and context, its potential impact on the business, the evidence still needed, and a clear decision or action plan with owners and deadlines.
