What if...

• we make supply chains, that connect producers and consumers across the globe, drivers of resilient climate action and local sustainable development
• by building innovative partnerships that co-invest and collaborate on solutions…
• …to make critical logistics links in shared supply chains more resilient, while reducing emissions and improving sustainability…
• …benefiting all stakeholders from communities to companies, countries and consumers.

Foreword and Introduction

The Life-Links Framework is a practical approach to unite partners to co-develop and co-invest in measures that build resilience, while also contributing to emissions reduction and local sustainable development. Shared resilience creates value in multiple ways: by avoiding losses when disruptions occur, generating economic benefits through more stable trade and supply, protecting livelihoods and the natural resources they depend on, and delivering social and environmental co-benefits.

The Framework is structured into four parts:

• Part A. Why Resilience – explains the challenges of supply chain disruptions and climate change, the market barriers that make them hard to address, and the opportunity for change.

• Part B. Life-Links Framework – describes what the Framework is and how it contributes to the Paris Agreement and sustainability goals, what it builds on, its overall structure, and how to use it.

• Part C. Life-Links Steps – helps users select a supply chain and a critical transport link, and then follow three steps: risk assessment, selection of action measures, and coordinated implementation – to create value for all partners, illustrated with real-world examples.

• Part D. Resources – provides practical materials to support the implementation of the Life-Links steps, such as overviews of guidelines and tools, hazard types, and examples of metrics and measures that improve resilience.

The Framework is meant to be used flexibly, because every supply chain is different. We invite everyone with a stake in resilient supply chains and logistics – especially the companies that power them – to apply the Life-Links Framework, share what you learn, and help us continue building it with practical examples and experiences. The Framework will keep evolving through collaboration and learning.

In the end, building resilience is as much about strength- ening roads and ports as it is about how people work together. It means balancing interests, building trust, and giving everyone a seat at the table so that solutions last. My hope is that Life-Links will help make that possible.

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Acknowledgements

Author: Sophie Punte, Co-founder & CEO, Life-Links

The author would like to thank the following individuals for their contributions:

Life-Links Council, who brought together diverse areas of expertise and perspectives from supply-chain actors and solution providers across the Global South and Global North:

Alan McKinnon (Kuehne Logistics University), Alison Clafin (Maersk), Angie Woo (Think Resilience), Ann Carpenter (Braid Theory), Baher El-Hifnawi and Guillermo Diaz-Fanas (World Bank), Carolina Chantrill, Lara Vivono, Lucila Capelli (Sustentar), Claire Bryant (independent expert, former GE Vernova), Darshana Godaliyadde and Savina Carluccio (ICSI / Resilience4Ports), Hanne Knaepen (ECDPM), Jille Luijckx and Sustainable Supply Chain Team (Deloitte), Koen Peters (Dutch Fund for Climate and Development), Matteo Nenciolini and Godfried Smit (European Schippers Council), Mark Rubarenzya (Uganda National Roads Authority), Martin Pompéry (SINE Foundation), Nicolas Miravalls, Danilo Ebbinghaus (ORIS Materials Intelligence), Nicolette van der Jagt (CLECAT), Patric Pütz and Rik Arends (Smart Freight Centre), Patrizia Kern-Ferretti (Breeze AI), Francis de Ruyter and Peggy Murphy (PSA International), Pietro D‘Arpa (independent expert and former Procter & Gamble), Samuel Brown and Jamie Pollard (CelsiusPro), Sarah Mourino (DP World), Sean Cooke (UNEP), Shehrina Kamal (Everstream), Sudhir Gota and Alvin Mejia (Asian Transport Observatory), Suzanne Greene (Dow), Thalia Ruiz (independent expert), Warwick Townsend (Alstom).

Other advisors and contributors: Ákos Wetters (Life-Links board), Elisa Seith (Jupiter Intelligence); Jamie Leather (Asian Development Bank), Anubuthi Gupta (WRI), Chris West (Sumerian Partners) Kaspar Tobler, Michael Gloor (Correntics), Samanta Kaeser (independent expert), Séan Rafter and Jonas Stumpf (Kuehne HELP Logistics), Sophie Brown (MicroSave Consulting), Yan Peng (independent expert).

Kuehne Climate Center for leading Life-Links applications to real-world supply chains, and supporting peer review and communications: Sophie t’Serstevens, Janet Naggujjia, Mark Major, Silvia Meyer-Wachsmuth.

Climate Champions for advice on positioning Life-Links in the context of the Paris Agreement, Sharm El-Sheikh Adaptation Agenda, and UNFCCC COP process: Mohamed Hegazy and Katharine Palmer.

ESCP Business School students who conducted a study for Life-Links on Supply Chain Collaboration on Climate Resilience: Chloé Moingeon, Hemamalini V, Kanto Ranaivosoa, Lisa Guggenberger, Maxence Desnoulez.

Co-hosts and all participants of events jointly organized with Life-Links:

• COP29 Transport Implementation Lab convened under the Marrakech Partnership for Global Climate Action (MPGCA), an official UNFCCC platform: UNESCAP, International Transport Forum, SLOCAT in collabo- ration with IDDRI, International Energy Agency, International Transport Workers’ Federation, International Union of Railways, Kuehne Climate Center, Sustentar, LEDS LAC Platform, UNCTAD, UN-Habitat, World Bank, World Resources Institute.
• ITF Summit side-event on the topic of supply chain resilience: Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism of Japan, Kuehne Climate Center, International Road Federation, Oris Materials Intelligence, Asian Transport Observatory.
• London Climate Action Week consultation roundtable: TT Club, Climate Champions, Kuehne Climate Center.

The Life-Links Framework contributes to global adaptation goals, most notably the Sharm El-Sheikh Adaptation Agenda’s call for resilient transport infrastructure to climate hazards.

The Race to Resilience is a global campaign catalyzing action by non-state actors to build the resilience of 4 billion people from vulnerable communities to climate risks by 2030.

A Why Resilience B Life-Links Framework C Life-Links Steps D Resources