Sustainability work in SMEs currently raises the same question in many companies: what is a sufficient level? Customers, financiers and other stakeholders are placing increasing expectations on sustainability, but for many businesses it remains unclear how much sustainability work is enough and where efforts should be focused. Should the company prepare a sustainability report, calculate its carbon footprint, build a set of sustainability metrics, or do everything at once?
Sustainability-related regulations, reporting frameworks and various guidelines can create the impression that a company must manage a vast number of issues simultaneously. In reality, however, the greatest challenge for most SMEs is not the amount of work involved but the uncertainty surrounding what constitutes a sufficient level of sustainability work for their specific business.
Why Does Sustainability Work Feel Difficult for SMEs?
Many SMEs are already engaging in sustainability work every day, even if they do not call it that.
They take care of employee well-being, improve occupational safety, seek to reduce energy consumption, manage customer relationships responsibly and conduct business ethically. In many cases, these practices have evolved naturally from the values of the company and its owners over time, without any formal sustainability programmes.
The challenge arises when companies try to determine whether these actions are sufficient. At the same time, new requirements, questionnaires and expectations emerge from different directions. A customer requests sustainability information during a tender process, a financier asks about sustainability risks, and an industry association recommends new practices.
It is no surprise that many entrepreneurs pause to consider what they actually need to do.
Sustainability Work in SMEs Does Not Need to Resemble That of Large Corporations
One of the most common misconceptions is the belief that good sustainability work means the same thing for companies of all sizes.
Large corporations may have dedicated sustainability teams, reporting systems and extensive performance metrics. SMEs often operate with significantly more limited resources and do not have separate sustainability departments. Nevertheless, many SMEs compare their efforts with the sustainability reports of large corporations and feel that they are falling behind.
This comparison is misleading. Sustainability work in an SME does not need to be, and should not be, a scaled-down version of a large corporation’s sustainability programme. It should be a practical and appropriate approach that reflects the company’s size, industry, business model and available resources.
How Can an SME Identify a Sufficient Level of Sustainability Work?
A sufficient level of sustainability work is rarely achieved by continuously adding new targets, metrics or reports. More often, the solution lies in the opposite direction: focusing on what is most relevant. Companies should first identify the sustainability topics that are most significant to their business, customers, employees and other key stakeholders. Not every sustainability issue is equally important to every organisation.
For a construction company, key topics may include occupational safety, energy efficiency, responsible use of materials and supply chain management. For a professional services company, employee competence, well-being, data security and ethical conduct may be more important. In the transport sector, attention may focus on vehicle emissions, road safety and fuel consumption.
The most relevant sustainability issues are always found within the company’s own business operations, not in generic checklists.
Three or Four Key Themes Can Be Enough
Many SMEs are surprised to learn that sustainability work does not need to cover every possible topic. In many cases, focusing on three or four sustainability themes that are most relevant to the business provides a strong foundation for sustainability management.
The most important thing is that the company can answer the following questions:
- Which sustainability issues are most important to us?
- Why are these issues material to our business?
- What are our objectives in these areas?
- What practical actions are we taking?
- How do we monitor progress?
When these questions can be answered, sustainability work evolves from a collection of isolated actions into a structured management approach. At the same time, the company can explain to customers, financiers and other stakeholders why it has chosen these particular priorities.
Sufficient Sustainability Work Does Not Mean Perfect Sustainability Work
Sustainability work is never fully complete. Companies grow, stakeholder expectations evolve, technology advances and regulations change. As a result, sustainability priorities may also shift over time. A sufficient level of sustainability work does not mean perfection. It means that the company identifies its most important sustainability issues, develops them systematically and can demonstrate this progress to external stakeholders.
For most SMEs, this is far more valuable than creating dozens of metrics or producing lengthy sustainability reports.
A Sufficient Level of Sustainability Work Is a Justifiable Level of Sustainability Work
A sufficient level of sustainability work for an SME is neither the lightest possible approach nor the most comprehensive one. It means identifying the sustainability issues that are most relevant to the business, setting objectives, implementing practical actions and monitoring progress.
Every company carries out sustainability work in its own way and at its own scale. What matters is that decisions are based on business needs, the company’s impacts and stakeholder expectations. If a company can clearly justify why it focuses on particular sustainability themes and how those themes are managed in practice, it can generally be concluded that its level of sustainability work is sufficient. In sustainability work, the goal is not to do everything that is possible. The goal is to do the right things in a systematic and purposeful way.
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