New report reveals over half of London SMEs including those in Ealing have plans in place to reduce their carbon footprint

A new report has found that more than half of London small to medium-sized businesses (SMEs) are taking steps to ensure environmental sustainability.

The London Business Leaders Environmental Sustainability Survey of 1050 London SMEs by business group West London Business found that 54% of companies surveyed are measuring their carbon footprint and 53% having reduction plans in place.

Of the 1,050 that took part, 218 were from the West London area including Ealing.

Other findings from the report provided insights into why some businesses in the capital hadn’t adopted environmental sustainability practices.

According to the respondents, 31% cited financial constraints and 24% gave lack of understanding or expertise as a reason,

Another 29% said there were not aware of being able to access free support while 25% said it was down to lack of time to find out.

The report also revealed that nearly 20% of London businesses highlighted difficulties in finding environmental sustainability partners or vendors to work with.

Andrew Dakers, chief executive of West London Business commented: “Many of those London businesses surveyed with carbon reduction plans in place have been accessing freely available support from local authorities (55%), City Hall, via Better Futures (48%), or via ReLondon (43%), demonstrating strong take-up of taxpayer-funded initiatives.”

Mr Dakers added: “We want to see even more businesses across the capital access these free, high quality resources to reduce their energy costs, increase their business resilience and help mitigate climate change. The Better Futures team are on hand to help London businesses navigate their net-zero journey.”

Daniela Menzky, co-founder of carbon footprint platform Climate Essentials added: “At Climate Essentials, we pride ourselves on helping businesses develop their net-zero strategies. Over the past few months, we have seen a steep increase in demand for easy-to-use, accurate, and educational platforms that not only allow organisations to measure their carbon emissions, but most importantly, create a reduction strategy and educate users along the way. Our platform does precisely that. Climate Essentials dismantles the barriers that might hinder organisations from playing a pivotal role in the battle against climate change.”