In Climate change must be part of your business plan, Jo Paisley, President of GARP Risk Institute, says, “The more we act now the better, as we have a greater chance of an orderly transition. But we will need both to adapt to the changing climate, as well as mitigate it. Certainly, it will be catastrophic if we don’t act to reduce greenhouse gas emissions soon.”

Meanwhile, it seems that many small businesses, even those who are taking action on climate change, aren’t reporting on these developments. In fact, this ICAEW article revealed that just 8% of SMEs are reporting on sustainability issues. While there is no requirement for SMEs to report this information, there is a growing demand for ESG plans to be shared.

The following resources will help you formulate an ESG plan and report on your organisation’s actions while accruing CPD hours.

Do you know your LCA from your carbon footprint? Get to grips with the terminology of sustainability in this article.

Assessing the risks associated with climate change is critical to the survival of small businesses. For support, take a look at ESG for SMEs: risk assessment and where to start and Climate change: the basics on getting started. 

• Start to plan for how to position your business: step-by-step climate scenario planning
• Looking for some quick wins? Try these 10 carbon reduction tips for your business.
• Consider whether the environment has a voice in your business and think about how you can embed Nature a stakeholder.
• Cutting energy use saves money and benefits the environment. Here are 4 tips on how to mitigate energy costs.
• How are your suppliers impacted by climate change? Consider future proofing.
• Could you arrange funding to support your sustainability plans? The Transition Plan Taskforce has introduced new online resources to help.

For more SME guidance on the journey to net zero visit the UK Business Climate Hub.

Although SMEs aren’t legally required to report on their sustainability, there's truth in the adage what gets measured, gets managed. Plus, how can you know whether your actions are cutting your carbon emissions if you don’t know your baseline? This is why sustainability reporting matters to SMEs, according to Sophie Parkhouse.

Many smaller businesses are also under pressure from stakeholders to follow reporting standards mandated for larger organisations, as we discuss in our podcast: Can SMEs keep up with ESG.

Understanding the connection between sustainability and finance provides some useful insights and you’ll also find some handy webinars produced by the Sustainability and Climate Change Community here.

You can find out more about the different UK, European and international sustainability standards in helpsheets on our non-financial reporting hub.

To effectively handle this measurement and reporting, you’ll need to consider how best to adapt your finance function.