Reaching for net zero: The impact of an innovative university-led business support programme on carbon management strategy and practices of small and medium-sized enterprises

Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are at the heart of the economy, representing the majority of businesses in the United Kingdom and the European Union, and employ a high percentage of people. With this positive impact comes an environmental footprint. SMEs account for around half (43–53%) of the greenhouse gas emissions, yet typically, they lack the support that larger organisations have in-house and are often hard to reach in terms of engagement, policy and practical interventions. SMEs face a range of barriers to implementing carbon management and are still a misunderstood sector both in their approach to carbon management and how best to provide business support for change. This research addresses that challenge by investigating the impact of an innovative university-led business support programme to help SMEs develop a carbon management strategy and practices. The research adopted a quantitative approach with a pre- and post-intervention survey to gather data from 101 SMEs in the context of the Sustainability in Enterprise (SiE) programme at Nottingham Trent University, United Kingdom. The study shows that universities have an important role, and the SiE programme had a significant impact on SMEs' transition to net zero through policy and strategy development, resource monitoring, carbon footprinting, target setting and carbon management maturity. The research highlights the importance of business support for SMEs, specifically in carbon management, while segmenting based on size and sector to meet ambitious local, national and global net zero targets.