The Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) has called for policymakers and regulators in the UK to help businesses meet growing sustainability data and reporting requirements.
The global accountancy body has proposed measures to reduce the administrative burden facing small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) as they collect and disclose sustainability information.
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The recommendations emerged from a roundtable organised by the ACCA and UK Finance during London Climate Action Week. The discussion included SMEs and financial institutions.
The ACCA’s report, ‘Measure what matters’, draws on the roundtable and outlines practical measures that policymakers and regulators could adopt to address the challenges SMEs face in gathering and reporting sustainability and climate metrics.
This comes as investors and financial institutions are increasingly using sustainability data from SMEs in their decision-making.
However, smaller businesses often lack the resources and tools needed to meet transparency and disclosure demands from supply chains.
Standardising sustainability reporting and improving consistency are central to the ACCA’s recommendations.
The organisation also called for reporting requirements to reflect differences in sector and business size.
Other proposals include carbon-intensity metrics, clearer guidance, incentives, open standards, support for effective feedback loops and wider distribution of reporting tools through trusted advisers.
ACCA EEMA & UK Regional Policy Development head Jessica Bingham said: “This report highlights how SMEs are responding to increasing sustainability data requirements. Currently, SME engagement is reactive.
“Policymakers and regulators need to take account of the diversity of SME size, structure and activities, and the challenges posed by fragmented requests and lack of standardisation.”
