An investigation into adoption of mitigative and adaptive strategies to climate change: a case of construction materials manufacturing business enterprises in Lusaka province.

Climate change is a global problem that affects not just the physical existence of the world but the less physical aspects such as the economy. It is caused by both natural processes and by man’s industrial activities. These causes results in the emission of greenhouse gases that eventually elevate the earths global temperature consequently affecting weather patterns causing extreme weather events such as droughts, floods, hurricanes and more. These disruptions negatively affect communities and businesses causing risks to not just human life but to business operations. The sectors that contribute toward economic progression have been affected by climate change due to extreme weather events that have caused shifts in how many activities have normally been carried out in the past. The construction sector which contributes to a country’s economy through GDP contribution has equally been affected. Business enterprises that specialise in manufacturing of construction materials (located in Lusaka Province) are of particular interest in this research as that they feed into some of the inputs that the construction sector uses such as steel and concrete. These inputs are used in infrastructure development such as roads, buildings and bridges which positively contribute to the economic development of a country. However, these inputs also contribute to climate change via greenhouse gas emissions both during their production and as finished products. It is for this reason that this research endeavoured to establish what adaptive and mitigative strategies business enterprises are adopting and to reveal the influence that the lack of comprehensive implementation of climate change policy has had and to establish whether Change Management theories are being applied by business enterprises to guide them in their efforts to survive in the era of climate change challenges. The research used a descriptive type of research design with a case study approach. The data was collected using questionnaires with both open and closed ended questions. The analysis used mixed methods with tools such as Microsoft excel and SPSS version 20. The findings revealed that a significant number of enterprises lacked knowledge on the existence of climate change policy, further many of them did not use any change management strategies. Those that were knowledgeable claimed that there was a lack of finances to adopt climate smart strategies as these were seen to be expensive as such policy implementers provide more awareness and support systems.