In February, the SME Climate Hub – an international initiative aiming to provide tools and resources for SMEs – published findings from a survey of its 5,200 committed signatories across 40 countries.
The resulting report shows that, while many SMEs have the will to create a better future for their business and the planet by taking action on the climate emergency, substantial barriers stand in their way.
Unsurprisingly, over half of those surveyed (55 per cent) said a lack of funds was a key barrier to taking action. However, a higher proportion (58 per cent) identified lack of skills and knowledge as a major problem.
This chimes with separate research published in February by the British Chambers of Commerce. In a survey of more than 1,000 UK businesses, fewer than 1 in 10 said they fully understand what the government’s 2050 net zero target actually means for them.
There is a substantial divide between firms with more than 50 employees and those with fewer than 50 – more than half of the bigger SMEs say they have at least some understanding of net zero, compared to just 35 per cent of smaller SMEs.
According to another recent survey by recruitment group Hays, 88 per cent of UK businesses with 50 or fewer staff have no dedicated sustainability resource in-house.
Nearly two thirds (61 per cent) of respondents in the SME Climate Hub’s research highlighted measurement and monitoring tools as key enablers for taking greater climate action. SME Climate Hub said offering access to these sorts of tools is a key reason why its community has increased to over 5,500 businesses in under 2 years.
After measurement and monitoring tools, SMEs ranked financial support (60 per cent) and having a network of peer companies to reach out and learn from (54 per cent) as their most popular demands.
According to another piece of research published in January by Novuna Business Finance – which found that 4 in 5 small business leaders in the UK are frustrated that no one is doing enough to tackle climate change – nearly a quarter (23 per cent) of the 1,000 SMEs surveyed said they were frustrated by businesses tending to ‘do their own thing’ rather than work together on climate action. Around a fifth (21 per cent) said there was not enough clarity about initiatives they could support, while 17 per cent took issue with the extent to which their networks and industry associations were giving guidance.