ESG report example for a small business (what goes in it)

A good small business ESG report has seven main sections: an “at a glance” summary, a description of the business and the report, your carbon footprint, a breakdown by emission source, people and community, how the business is run, and commitments and next steps. Behind those sit appendices showing the method, every calculation and the emission factors used. That structure is what investors, buyers and grant assessors expect to see.

Below is the full structure of an ESG Now report, section by section, using a fictional business as the example. You can also view a complete sample report if you would rather see the finished article.

Meet the example business

Brightline Studio is an eight-person design agency renting a dedicated office in Bristol. It has no company vehicles. Staff work in the office three days a week and from home the rest. In its reporting year, the agency:

• used 11,000 kWh of electricity on a standard tariff
• used 14,000 kWh of gas for heating
• took around 30 return train trips to London for client meetings
• flew to Amsterdam twice for a client workshop, two people each time
• had one general waste and one recycling bin collected weekly

The owners were asked for a carbon footprint by a large retail client and wanted something they could reuse for a council grant application.

What goes in the main report?

At a glance

The first page is for the busy reader. It shows the total footprint in tCO2e, a split between Scope 1, 2 and 3, the biggest single source, and a handful of headline facts about people and governance. Someone skimming for 30 seconds should come away knowing the size of the footprint and whether the basics are in place.

For Brightline, that page would show a total of roughly 5 tCO2e, or a little over 0.6 tonnes per employee, with gas heating as the largest source.

About the business and the report

This section sets the context: sector, headcount, turnover band, how the business operates (office, remote, hybrid or with physical products), the type of premises and the reporting period. It also explains the reporting boundary, which for ESG Now is the operational control approach under the GHG Protocol.

This matters more than it looks. A reviewer comparing your figures to last year, or to another supplier, needs to know what is included.

Carbon footprint

Here the report presents your emissions by scope. For Brightline, using the 2026 UK government conversion factors (figures rounded and approximate):

Source	Activity	Approx. emissions
Gas heating (Scope 1)	14,000 kWh at about 0.18 kg per kWh	2.55 t
Electricity (Scope 2, location-based)	11,000 kWh at about 0.13 kg per kWh	1.44 t
Rail travel (Scope 3)	about 12,000 passenger km	0.37 t
Flights (Scope 3, with radiative forcing)	8 short-haul legs	0.58 t
Waste and water (Scope 3)	estimated from bins and headcount	about 0.1 t
Total		about 5.0 tCO2e

Scope 2 is shown two ways. The location-based figure uses the average UK grid factor. The market-based figure reflects your actual tariff, so if Brightline switched to a renewable tariff backed by REGOs, its market-based electricity emissions would drop to zero. Our location-based vs market-based entry explains the difference.

Performance by source

A short commentary on each source: what drives it, how it compares with typical businesses of a similar size, and where the biggest savings sit. Brightline’s would point out that gas heating is more than half its footprint, so heating controls and, longer term, a heat pump conversation with the landlord are worth exploring.

People and community

This covers how the business looks after its workforce and community. Typical content includes whether the business pays the Real Living Wage, staff benefits, training, health and safety policy and incident recording, diversity monitoring, volunteering and charitable giving, and how customer data is handled under UK GDPR.

For a small firm, this section is often a pleasant surprise. Brightline offers a training allowance, flexible hours and a day of volunteering a year. None of that was written down anywhere before.

How the business is run

The governance section names who leads the business, who is responsible for ESG, and which policies are in place: code of conduct, environmental policy, risk management and supplier due diligence. Where a policy does not exist yet, the report says so plainly rather than glossing over it.

Commitments and next steps

The final section of the main report sets out any carbon target and the priorities for the coming year. Brightline might commit to switching to a renewable electricity tariff, setting a 30% reduction target against this baseline, and replacing one of the Amsterdam trips with a video workshop.

What goes in the appendices?

The appendices are where trust is earned. A reviewer who wants to check your working can find everything here.

• Methodology and reporting basis. The standard followed, the consolidation approach, the factor year and what is excluded.
• Calculation detail. Every line shown as activity multiplied by factor, so 14,000 kWh × the gas factor = 2.55 t, and so on.
• Emission factors used. The exact DEFRA conversion factors applied, with units and source year.
• Questionnaire responses. A record of what was answered, which is useful when you update the report next year.

Each figure is labelled as measured, estimated or a data gap. Brightline’s energy is measured from bills. Its waste is estimated from bin sizes and collection frequency. That honesty is exactly what assessors look for.

What is not in the footprint?

An honest report is clear about its boundary. The ESG Now footprint covers heating fuels, company vehicles, plant fuel and refrigerant leakage, purchased electricity and EV charging, well-to-tank and transmission losses, water, waste, courier deliveries, and business travel including mileage in employees’ own cars, taxis and hotels. It also estimates employee commuting and homeworking, and can add an optional spend-based estimate of purchased goods and services.

It does not include inbound freight paid for by suppliers, supplier-specific product footprints, or downstream categories such as the use and disposal of products you sell. For Brightline, the two home-working days a week would appear as an estimated homeworking line, and our guide to working-from-home emissions shows how that estimate is worked out.

What comes alongside the report?

A private action plan comes with every ESG Now report. It sets out where to focus, the prioritised actions and the data improvements that would strengthen next year’s report. This one is for you, not for sharing. If the governance section shows a policy is missing, our environmental policy template guide shows what a good one contains.

A business like Brightline would typically finish the questionnaire in 20 to 30 minutes, working from two energy bills and a rough count of trips. If your business looks similar, you can start your own report and have it ready to send the same day. For more on how the figures are produced, see our methodology.