Is Net Zero yesterday’s issue for SMEs…? Key points from the Net Zero Census 2025

The 2025 Net Zero Census, the defining survey of UK business’ engagement with the Net Zero transition, was published in October.

For SMEs and micro-businesses the results confirmed three things; Net Zero engaged SMEs are still in the minority, a lack of funding is still perceived as a key blocker to action and SMEs are experiencing an increasing demand for their emissions data when selling goods and services and applying for finance.

Only 18% of SMEs have a Net Zero engaged internal leadership team vs 66% for large corporates

Through our work with SMEs on the ground we know that SMEs owners are extremely time poor; Net Zero can be seen as ‘non-essential’ and de-prioritised. A focus on the positive financial returns from energy efficiency and emissions reduction, as called out in the Willow Review, could address this perception gap and make this common good business practice.

57% of companies call-out a lack of finance or grants as a barrier to Net Zero.

This is a consistent trend from year to year, however, given that only one third of businesses use lender-finance at all, how many businesses would actually take a loan out to achieve Net Zero if it was available? Certainly, having more readily available capital would be a positive, but a focus on connecting SMEs with the myriad grants available and clearly demonstrating the economic benefits of action, beyond the bragging rights of achieving Net Zero, will help address this persistent barrier.

37% of medium-sized companies have received a requests for carbon data from customers

This shows that emissions is already core input to supplier risk management with around half of the ~80% of firms that sell B2B having to declare their emissions to customers. At this scale this equates millions of hours spent measuring, declaring and collating emissions metrics; we must ensure this is time well spent. The EU omnibus regulation now limits small businesses to reporting only the metrics defined in the vSME format. Adopting the UK SME Voluntary Emissions Standard (UK SME VES), which was developed by a broad industry taskforce which we co-chaired alongside B4NZ and the Broadway Initiative, ensures that SMEs can meet these requirements with minimal time and resource impact. This approach avoids duplication and complexity from multiple standards. It also guarantees that customers receive the critical emissions data they need, backed by a standard that provides credibility and consistency.

The vSME format is the EU’s simplified reporting framework for small businesses, focusing on a core set of emissions metrics. The UK SME VES aligns with vSME focuses on data automation, making compliance easier for SMEs while maintaining data integrity and comparability. This means SMEs reduce their administrative burden, and customers benefit from transparent, standardised emissions data that supports sustainability goals.

The census provides a vital pulse-check on Net Zero in the UK. Despite the shifting narrative on the international stage, persistently high energy prices and demanding UK sustainability disclosure regulations mean emissions reduction remains an important issue. With this backdrop, Experian continues to develop groundbreaking sustainability data solutions across business and property portfolios; including metered energy and emissions, hyper-granular physical risk, data passporting and embedding the UK SME VES.