Business Improvement District Better Bankside surveyed its 900 business members, of which over 60 percent are SMEs, between January and March this year[1]. When asked what the top priorities for their business were, sustainability and the environment ranked in sixth place. When asked the same question in the 2022 member survey, sustainability, ranked much higher, voted as priority number three. With the survey also revealing that members’ main challenges were economic uncertainty (56%) and rising costs (54%,) it seems sustainability’s fall may be related to the sharp focus required for issues relating to business survival.
Better Bankside’s Member Survey echoes similar UK-wide findings. The latest growth tracker from NatWest showed sustainability and decarbonisation are no longer a priority for SMEs.
Decarbonisation and sustainability have always been challenging issues for SMEs to address. Not because of a lack of willingness, but because of limitations in time, resources and funding. According to the UN-backed SME Climate Hub, a number of barriers[2] have historically blocked SMEs from taking the necessary climate action causing an ‘intention gap.’ It was found that SME decarbonisation and sustainability initiatives was hampered by a lack of skills and knowledge (63%), funding (48%) and time (40%). Now with economic pressures meaning SMEs’ focus has turned squarely to managing cash flow and income for survival, it has never been more imperative for the government to provide the support small businesses need.
With SMEs making up [3]99 percent of UK businesses, and accounting for 40 percent of the UK’s non-domestic emissions, action taken by this group will be critical in achieving the government’s national net zero commitments – the latest of which saw Prime Minister Sir Kier Starmer aim for a 81 percent cut in emissions by 2035[4].
Findings from Better Bankside’s Southwark Climate Collective (SCC) programme, reveal that a targeted investment of just £5,000, combined with 20 hours of tailored support, could rapidly unlock the decarbonisation progress of the UK’s small businesses. The programme, which has just been shortlisted for a major green award, has spent three years supporting over 200 Southwark SMEs embed sustainability into their everyday operations, developing an effective blueprint of sustainability support that can be rolled out at a national level. The blueprint includes:
· Engage – bring SMEs into the conversation through quality time and face-to-face engagement, use the right language, and appreciate that no two businesses are the same
· Knowledge share – support the skills and knowledge needed through training, Carbon Literacy and creating a network where businesses can learn from each other
· Deploy- co-design a response with businesses directly, match them with the experts they need and leave them with plans they can continue to work on
· Support – make everything available through free online resources, foster a network to keep everyone connected and be ready to go again
The total cost of providing this necessary sustainability support to SMEs is £5,000 per business, with even iconic organisations such as Shakespeare’s Globe and Southwark Cathedral, benefiting from this relatively small level of investment.
Nicole Gordon, CEO of Better Bankside said; “Our latest Member Survey is further evidence that sustainability is becoming more entrenched as an out of reach deliverable for SMEs. When many are fighting for survival, its deprioritisation is understandable but far from ideal – given not only the government’s Net Zero targets, but also the fact that operating in a more sustainable way will save SMEs money.
“We are calling on the government to reframe the discussion from education on data, decarbonisation and reporting to investment in small-scale, high-impact SME sustainability support. Incentives need to be urgently introduced, such as sustainability-linked business rates relief, and it is time for a national sustainability toolkit for SMEs to be developed.
“With the right support, SMEs can play a far greater role in meeting the UK’s net zero ambitions while strengthening their own competitiveness in a challenging economic climate.”
FREE Southwark Climate Collective resources SMEs can access now
SMEs can access a selection of the programme’s 2025/ 2026 webinars for FREE on a range of topics; from demystifying Scope 3 Emissions and how to reduce food waste to how to embed sustainability into procurement polices here: https://southwarkclimatecollective.co.uk/webinars/.
