Survey: 9 in ten UK SMEs taking action to cut emissions
A survey of hundreds of small and medium-sized business owners has found that only 11% think that reducing emissions is “of no importance”, while 44% claim their plans are aligned with net-zero.
By edie
Commissioned by Novuna Business Finance, the survey polled a representative sample of 1,027 small business owners operating in different sectors. While some other similar surveys in recent months have shown challenges to SME climate action, including a lack of in-house knowledge and a challenging financial landscape, this survey highlighted ambition and optimism.
Of those surveyed, only 11% said they were making no effort to reduce emissions from their businesses.
45% said they have taken steps but not yet drawn up a formal carbon reduction plan in line with net-zero, and a further 31% said they are actively working on plans to reach net-zero under an agreed strategy.
The remaining 13% claim that they regard themselves as either net-zero or carbon-neutral already. Some firms use the terms interchangeably, but a more common differentiation is that any organisation can reach carbon neutrality by offsetting, but reaching net-zero requires more significant emissions reductions.
The businesses already claiming net-zero or carbon-neutrality were in the legal, property, construction, hospitality and leisure sectors. The survey didn’t cover which emissions scopes these claims were applied to.
When it comes to firms not yet claiming net-zero or carbon-neutral status, but working to get there, the media and marketing sector was the most represented. Other leading sectors were manufacturing, medical, finance, accounting, IT and telecoms.
Many of the businesses state that they have been encouraged to increase sustainability ambitions and actions by their staff. The most common changes advocated for by staff were car sharing (at 16% of businesses polled), reducing business travel (15%) and minimising waste (13%).
Business leaders also thought that customers were more interested in different priorities – notably, using less plastic and less packaging altogether.
Commenting on the findings, Novuna Business Finance’s head of insight Jo Morris said: “We know from years of working together and through the extensive research we have done, that the UK small business community is an incredibly resilient bunch. Though the climate crisis is a daunting prospect for us all, it is so encouraging to see the action being taken within the community to implement change.”