The findings suggest that while companies are aware of the need to reduce their carbon footprints and cut down on waste, they need help in turning the theory into practice.
“Among the more frequently mentioned reasons for not having a plan to reduce carbon emissions are that SMEs regard it as irrelevant to their business strategy (34%) and just as worryingly because of a lack of information and understanding on their part (28%),” said Paul Sanderson, editor of Materials Recycling Week.
“Clearly, companies of all sizes need to be better informed about carbon emissions and about the benefits to them and the country of having a sound policy in this area,” he added.
There is also evidence that the smaller the company, the less likely they were to take action on reducing their carbon emissions. Just one in 10 companies with 10-49 staff had measured its footprint compared to a quarter of firms with between 50 and 250 employees.
The SME climate change survey also revealed that almost nine in 10 small firms currently have plans to reduce waste (86%) and to recycle more (88%), while nearly three-quarters (73%) plan to cut energy use.
However, only 42% have a plan to cut transport emissions and the proportion that plan to use a carbon offsetting scheme is just 15%.
Over half (54%) of small firms and 63% of larger companies agreed that businesses should be taxed according to their carbon emissions.