Small Business & Sustainability Research
Sara le Roux, Lauren Tuckerman and Tim Vorley were at the House of Lords to launch their new report on Small Business Sustainability: Insight & Implications.
The event celebrated the Small Business Sustainability Basics programme delivered by Small Business Britain in collaboration with Oxford Brookes Business School with more than 150 businesses celebrating their sustainability journeys on the day, and more than a 1300 businesses having completed the programme now!
Key insights of the report include:
- A large proportion of small businesses are progressing with some form of sustainability activity, including optimising energy consumption and increasing recycling (56%) and reducing use of plastic packaging (53%).
- 69% of businesses were actively lowering their carbon emissions, where 23% said they were fully active in doing so and actively investing in reducing emissions and a further 46% said they are taking some action but could do more.
- 91% of respondents said it was either ‘likely’ (55%) or ‘very likely’ (36%) that they would do more to reduce carbon emissions in the next two years.
- 42% of small businesses are aware of the Government’s Net Zero agenda and 12% are not aware of it, suggesting there is scope to do more to reach small business to engage them in this aspect of sustainability.
The report makes recommendations for small businesses, business support practitioners, big business and government on next steps.
Download report here >>