Policy makers, regulators and finance professionals must help small businesses adopt sustainable business practices – since their huge environmental impact is currently being overlooked, says the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) and the Chartered Institute of Environmental Health in Northern Ireland (CIEH).

SMEs represent 98% of businesses in Northern Ireland, 90% at global level, translating to 50% gross domestic product and 63% of employment which makes a significant impact on industrial pollution. SMEs have been marginalised in the debate about sustainable business practices and have been slow to adopt environment-related improvements. For instance in the EU, only 29% of SMEs have introduced measures to save energy or raw materials (compared with 46% of large enterprises) and only 4% have a comprehensive energy efficiency system.

In its new policy paper Embedding Sustainability in SMEs; ACCA’s Global Forum for SMEs has called on a number of groups to take action to help smaller businesses to enable them to become more efficient and environmentally friendly. This call is being supported by CIEH who have called for SMEs to receive targeted guidance as to how they can become more sustainable.

A series of SME-specific measures and approaches will need to be adopted, if these efforts are to gain any significant momentum - with policy makers taking into account not only the differences between large companies and SMEs, but also the differences between micro, small and medium-sized enterprises, says the report.

As many small businesses do not have shareholders or boards to report to, they have more freedom to implement sustainability practices or to ignore them. This is why it is important that governments and businesses support professionals to ensure that SMEs are aware of the many benefits of becoming sustainable such as increased efficiency and financial assistance.

The paper sets out a number of challenges for groups involved and identifies five steps to sustainability reporting for SMEs including: assessing the business’ impact; setting targets for reducing impact; acting to reduce impact and publishing the business’ policies and actions.

Mark Gold, chairman of ACCA’s Global Forum for SMEs said: “All too often, small business is overlooked when it comes to environmental and sustainability issues. But in terms of economic activity, employment and waste, small businesses make a huge impact and it is critical that they and those who advise and regulate them, recognise this and begin to take steps to tackle waste, promote efficiency and ensure that sustainability is at the forefront of their thinking.”

Gary McFarlane, Chartered Institute of Environmental Health commented "We recognise the significance of SMEs in terms of the contribution they make to the local economy yet often they are unnoticed, particularly in terms of reducing their environmental impacts. Equally, the kinds of schemes that are often accessible to larger businesses with the capacity and resources they possess are often beyond the reach of SMEs.

“There is a need to ensure that SMEs in Northern Ireland get the kind of professional, practical, and tailored support that they need to help them become more sustainable. Sustainability is not just good for the environment and the economy - it makes good business sense. We are keen to explore some ideas that we are developing in this area with SME owners as well as organisations such as ACCA.”

To access the full report click on the attached link

http://www.accaglobal.com/content/dam/acca/global/PDF-technical/small-business/pol-tp-esis-v1.pdf

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For further information please contact Shane Finnegan or Katrina Frazer on 028 9066 3000Notes to Editors

1. ACCA (Association of Chartered Certified Accountants) is the global body for professional accountants. We aim to offer business-relevant, first-choice qualifications to people of application, ability and ambition around the world who seek a rewarding career in accountancy, finance and management.

2. There are over 20,000 members and students in Ireland.

3. We support our 154,000 members and 432,000 students in 170 countries, helping them to develop successful careers in accounting and business, with the skills required by employers. We work through a network of over 80 offices and centres and more than 8,400 Approved Employers worldwide, who provide high standards of employee learning and development. Through our public interest remit, we promote appropriate regulation of accounting and conduct relevant research to ensure accountancy continues to grow in reputation and influence.

4. Founded in 1904, ACCA has consistently held unique core values: opportunity, diversity, innovation, integrity and accountability. We believe that accountants bring value to economies in all stages of development and seek to develop capacity in the profession and encourage the adoption of global standards. Our values are aligned to the needs of employers in all sectors and we ensure that through our qualifications, we prepare accountants for business. We seek to open up the profession to people of all backgrounds and remove artificial barriers, innovating our qualifications and delivery to meet the diverse needs of trainee professionals and their employers.