Sustainability Reporting: Best Practices for UK SMEs

Sustainability is becoming an increasingly important part of how businesses operate, and how they communicate with customers, suppliers and other organisations.

For larger companies, detailed sustainability and environmental reporting is already a familiar part of doing business. For many small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), however, knowing what to measure, where to start and how much detail to include can be less straightforward.

The good news is that sustainability reporting does not have to begin with a lengthy report or complicated set of targets. For SMEs, it can start with understanding your current environmental impact, collecting reliable information and setting realistic goals for improvement.

Here are some of the areas businesses should consider.

What is sustainability reporting?

Sustainability reporting is the process of measuring and communicating a business’s environmental, social and governance performance.

Depending on the organisation, this could cover everything from energy consumption and carbon emissions to employee wellbeing and supply chain practices.

Waste is another important part of the picture. Understanding how much waste your organisation produces, what happens to it and how much is recycled can provide valuable information about your environmental performance.

For SMEs, reporting can be relatively simple. The important thing is that the information you collect is accurate, consistent and useful.

Start with what you can measure

It can be tempting to try to measure everything immediately. In reality, this can make sustainability reporting unnecessarily difficult.

Instead, identify the areas where your business already has reliable information.

This could include electricity and gas consumption, fuel use, business travel, water consumption and waste.

Waste data can provide a particularly useful starting point because businesses can look at the amount of waste generated alongside how different materials are being managed.

For example, tracking general waste, mixed recycling and food waste separately can give you a much clearer picture than simply recording your total waste collections.

Once you have established a baseline, you can begin monitoring changes over time.

Make sure your data is reliable

A sustainability report is only as useful as the information behind it.

Try to collect information consistently and use the same measurements across each reporting period. If you change the way something is calculated, make a note of it so that comparisons remain meaningful.

Working with suppliers that can provide clear reporting can make this process much easier.

For waste management, this could mean having access to information on waste volumes, different waste streams and treatment routes. Rather than relying on estimates at the end of the year, businesses can build a clearer picture of their performance throughout the reporting period.

Set realistic sustainability targets

Once you understand where you are starting from, you can decide where you want to improve.

Targets should be relevant to the way your business actually operates.

For one organisation, the priority might be reducing general waste. Another might focus on improving recycling rates, separating food waste or reducing the amount of packaging entering the business.

Setting a small number of measurable targets also makes it easier to demonstrate progress.

Rather than simply saying your business wants to “be more sustainable”, consider specific goals that can be monitored and reviewed.

Look beyond your general waste bin

If waste forms part of your sustainability reporting, it is important to understand exactly what your business is throwing away.

A waste review can identify materials that are regularly ending up in general waste despite having alternative recycling or recovery rates.

Depending on your business, this could include cardboard, plastics, food waste, electrical equipment, batteries or specialist materials.

Better segregation can provide more accurate waste data while also helping businesses identify opportunities to reduce waste and recover valuable materials.

It can also highlight where waste is being generated unnecessarily in the first place.

Get your team involved

Sustainability reporting should not exist solely within a spreadsheet.

Employees have a significant influence on how successfully environmental policies work in practice. If your business introduces separate recycling streams, for example, employees need to understand what goes into each bin and why the change has been made.

Share your sustainability goals internally and provide updates on progress.

Showing employees that recycling has improved or that waste has fallen over a particular period can make environmental targets feel much more tangible.

It can also help create accountability across the organisation rather than leaving sustainability with one individual or department.

Be Transparent About Your Progress

Sustainability reporting is about demonstrating progress, but that does not mean every result needs to be perfect.

Avoid making environmental claims that cannot be supported by evidence. Instead, clearly explain what you have measured, what has improved and where there is still work to do.

If your recycling performance has improved but you have not yet reached your target, say so.

Transparent reporting gives customers, employees and other stakeholders a more realistic understanding of your sustainability journey and provides a stronger foundation for future improvements.

Review Your Performance Regularly

Sustainability reporting should be an ongoing process rather than something considered once a year.

Regular reviews allow you to spot changes and understand whether the measures you have introduced are actually working.

Waste volumes, for example, may change as your business grows, moves premises or experiences seasonal peaks. Monitoring these changes can help you adjust collections, introduce new waste streams or identify opportunities to prevent waste.

Over time, this creates a more detailed picture of your environmental performance and makes future reporting much easier.

How Cawleys Can Support Your Sustainability Reporting

Reliable waste information can play an important role in helping businesses understand and report their environmental performance.

Cawleys works with businesses to review their waste streams, improve segregation and identify opportunities to reduce the amount of waste they produce.

By gaining a clearer understanding of where waste is going and how it is being managed, SMEs can build more meaningful waste data into their wider sustainability reporting.

Our team can also help businesses review existing waste arrangements and identify practical changes that support their environmental goals.

Build a Clearer Picture of Your Environmental Impact

Sustainability reporting does not need to become another complicated administrative task.

Start with the information you can reliably measure, establish a baseline and focus on realistic improvements. As your data develops, your reporting can develop with it.

Most importantly, use the information you collect to make better decisions rather than treating reporting as an end in itself.

If you want a clearer understanding of your organisation's waste and recycling performance, speak to the Cawleys team about reviewing your current waste arrangements and identifying opportunities for improvement.

• Do UK SMEs have to produce sustainability reports?

  Not every UK SME is legally required to publish a formal sustainability report. Requirements depend on factors including the size and structure of the business. However, SMEs may increasingly be asked to provide environmental information by customers, larger organisations, investors or businesses within their supply chain.

• What should an SME include in a sustainability report?

  This will depend on the business, but common areas include energy use, carbon emissions, water consumption, waste and recycling, business travel, supply chain practices and employee-related measures. SMEs can begin with the areas where they have reliable data and expand their reporting over time.

• Why is waste data useful for sustainability reporting?

  Waste data can help businesses understand how much waste they produce, which materials are being discarded and how those materials are treated. Tracking this information over time can help demonstrate improvements and highlight areas that need attention.

• How often should sustainability performance be reviewed?

  Many organisations report annually, but reviewing performance more regularly can help identify issues sooner. Quarterly or monthly monitoring of areas such as waste, energy and water can make year-end reporting much easier.

• How can an SME improve the accuracy of its sustainability data?

  Use consistent measurements, keep records throughout the year and work with suppliers that can provide reliable information. It is also important to document any changes in how data is collected or calculated.

• What is a sustainability baseline?

  A baseline is a starting point against which future performance can be compared. For example, a business could record its waste volumes and recycling performance for one year and use those figures to measure progress in subsequent years.

• Can Cawleys provide waste data for sustainability reporting?

  Cawleys can help businesses understand their waste streams and waste management performance, providing useful information that can support wider environmental and sustainability reporting.