How to make ESG as easy as ABC: tips for SMEs

10 March 2026

Even though the effects of climate change are becoming increasingly more prevalent, Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) concerns still aren’t the top of everyone’s agenda. However, it could soon become costly for your business to ignore sustainability.

Today’s consumers want to know if the brands they choose are protecting the planet, whilst investors are asking if the companies they back are managing their environmental impact. Companies that delay action risk losing customer trust and falling behind competitors who are already embedding sustainability into their operations.

But going greener can seem like a complex challenge for small to medium sized enterprises (SMEs), who likely lack dedicated ESG resource. So how can you transition towards a more sustainable future?
 

The following 4 areas are a good place to start:

1. Electric thinking

Going electric is one of the best ways of underlining your commitment to sustainability. In your business, how many team members drive electric vehicles? Is it possible to switch from conventional petrol and diesel engines to electric or hybrid? Do you have an electric charging point installed in your car park?

If you are thinking about installing an EV charger at your workplace, contact an OZEV-approved installer, who can conduct a site survey, recommend hardware and handle the installation. It’s also a good idea to check your eligibility for a Workplace Charging Scheme (WCS) grant, as these can provide a voucher to help cover the cost of installation.

You can also choose a delivery partner who is swapping their old petrol or diesel vehicles for electric ones. At Royal Mail and Parcelforce Worldwide, we now have around 8,000 electric vans on the road, and 27% of our delivery routes are completely zero-emission.1 In fact, we have the largest electric van delivery fleet in the UK.¹
 

2. Decarbonisation

In emissions reporting, there are three ‘Scopes’:

Scope 1: Direct emissions that you produce, i.e. from your own vehicles.

Scope 2: Indirect emissions that arise due to the organisations’ operations such as electricity used by the business.

Scope 3: Value chain emissions, such as from purchased goods and your wider supply chain.²

If you choose to report on ESG, your reporting should focus on them all – but you will have less control over Scope 3.

That’s why you need to pick partners who put sustainability first – and can help you reduce your overall carbon footprint.

Royal Mail is the UK’s greenest carrier for letters and parcels because of our lower CO2e emissions footprint per parcel²… that’s because just over half of our delivery routes are either purely or largely on foot.

3. Circular solutions

When it comes to sustainability, it can sometimes feel like you are going round in circles. But that’s actually not a bad thing! We’re talking about the circular economy… a system designed to minimise waste and by reusing, repairing, refurbishing and recycling products and materials as much as possible. It benefits businesses, society and the environment by reducing pollution and resource depletion. And there are economic benefits for companies too: by being more efficient and using or wasting less resources, you can cut material costs and eventual waste disposal fees.

One easy idea is to return your used coffee pods. 1 million bags of coffee pods were recycled in the first year of our partnership with Nespresso.¹ Or you could return electronic items your business no longer needs, like old Wi-Fi routers… or recycling your old desks and chairs by giving them to charity or using a buy-back scheme with your original supplier.

You could encourage employees to embrace circularity too. Royal Mail has set up donation points at some of our biggest sites, so colleagues can donate items for British Heart Foundation to sell on in their shops. To date, the items donated have an estimated stock value of over £5,000 and 2.86 tonnes have been diverted from the waste stream as a result!¹

At Royal Mail and Parcelforce, we are committed to minimising our use of raw materials, reducing waste generated by our operations and making the most of the resources we have.⁴ We collaborate closely with our main waste contractor Biffa to uphold a high standard of waste management throughout our facilities.¹ We have also been improving awareness among our employees about the importance of proper waste separation,¹ which is something you can do too!

4. Bring your customers on the journey to Net-Zero

When it comes to going green, communication is key… after all, customers won’t know what you are doing unless you tell them! Start sharing your good news stories about your ESG efforts: even the smallest things can make a big difference to how your customers perceive you.

Could you make an impact by installing solar panels at your site or switching to a renewable electricity tariff?

Remember: the general public don’t like greenwashing – so make sure that anything you tell them is rooted in reality, with real numbers to back it up! We’re seeing increased demand from our customers for accurate emissions data, which is one reason we report on emissions data per parcel and per letter.¹
 

Plan ahead to stay ahead

If you run a business, you may be wondering, “does this apply to me?”. The short answer is yes, but you still have time to act and get your ESG priorities on track.

While SMEs don’t face the same ESG reporting pressures as bigger organisations, that doesn’t mean sustainability can be ignored for long. Many large companies are already required to assess and report on their environmental and social impact, and that scrutiny increasingly extends to their supply chains.

So businesses that act now will gain a clear strategic advantage, becoming preferred partners for sustainability-conscious clients, investors, and large organisations looking to work with more responsible suppliers.

Think greener, cleaner… and put profitability and the planet first.
Find out more at royalmail.com/green

 
Footnotes

¹ Royal Mail Environmental, Social and Governance Report 2024-25.
²Measuring UK greenhouse gas emissionss (Office for National Statistics)
³ Based on publicly available reported gCO2e per parcel from other UK parcel operators.
⁴ ’Making circular happen’, Royal Mail