A finished sustainability report for your small business, not another blank template

Is a sustainability report the same as an ESG report?

For a small business, effectively yes. “Sustainability report” is the phrase most owners and customers use. Investors, banks and procurement teams are more likely to say “ESG report”. Both are asking the same thing: what is your environmental impact, how do you treat people, and how is the business run?

Large companies sometimes draw finer lines between sustainability, ESG and CSR reporting. Our guide to ESG vs CSR vs sustainability explains the differences, but for an SME they rarely matter. If a customer asks for one and you send the other, covering the same ground with honest figures, they will be happy.

What should a small business sustainability report include?

A good one answers the questions a reader actually has, in the order they would ask them. The report ESG Now produces follows this structure:

• At a glance. Your headline footprint, emissions per employee and how much of the data was measured, on one page.
• About you and this report. Who you are, what you do, the reporting period and what the report covers.
• Your carbon footprint. Scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions in tonnes of CO2e, calculated to the GHG Protocol with the official UK government conversion factors.
• Performance by source. Heating, electricity, vehicles, travel, waste, water and more, each labelled as measured, estimated or a data gap.
• Your people and community. Pay, training, benefits, health and safety, diversity and community activity.
• How you are run. Your code of conduct, environmental policy, risk management, certifications, data protection and supplier checks.
• Commitments and next steps. Any targets you have set, your baseline year and your priorities.
• Methodology and appendices. The reporting basis, every calculation line by line and the factors used.

That last section matters more than it looks. It is what lets a sceptical reader check your figures, and it keeps you well clear of greenwashing. You can see how the whole thing reads in the sample report.

How long should it be?

Short and honest beats long and glossy. The reports you find from FTSE companies are written for a different audience and a different scale of business, and copying their length mostly leads to padding.

For a small business, aim for a report someone can read in one sitting. Cover your footprint with real figures, say what you do for your people and how decisions are made, and be open about what you have not measured yet. A sentence like “we have not set a carbon target yet, and plan to now that we have a baseline” builds more trust than a page of aspirations.

Why does a template alone leave you stuck?

A sustainability report template gives you headings. It does not give you the content, and the hardest content is the numbers.

To fill the carbon section you need to collect your energy, fuel, travel and waste data, find the right year of UK government conversion factors, multiply each activity by the right factor, split the results into scopes and convert to tonnes. Then you need to decide what to do where data is missing. That is where most people stall, and it is the part a reader will look at hardest.

The people and governance sections are easier, but a template cannot tell you which practices buyers expect to see or how to describe a policy that exists informally but is not yet written down.

How does ESG Now produce the finished report?

You answer a plain-English questionnaire in five phases: company profile, environmental, social, governance, and targets and plans. Sections that do not apply to you are skipped.

From your answers, ESG Now calculates your carbon footprint, covering heating, vehicles, plant fuel and refrigerants, electricity and EV charging, and the Scope 3 sources a small firm can measure, such as business travel, commuting, homeworking, waste, water and courier deliveries. Where you do not have a figure, it estimates fairly from benchmarks, such as office energy from floor area, and labels it. If there is not enough to estimate fairly, it shows a data gap rather than guessing.

It then writes up the full report in the structure above. Each social and governance practice is marked established, developing, not in place, not applicable or unknown, so the report is honest about where you are without scoring you against anyone else.

You also get a private action plan, which stays with you. It lists your priorities, the data gaps worth closing before next year and any policies worth adding next.

How long does it take?

A sole trader working from home usually finishes in 10 to 15 minutes. An office-based SME takes 20 to 30, and a shop, café, workshop or business with vehicles takes 30 to 45. Most small businesses are done in under an hour, and answers save as you go.

Your first report is free, with no card needed. Start your sustainability report and have a finished, shareable report today.