SMEs and Net Zero report 2025

The first SME specific report of the UK Net Zero Business Census, produced by the British Business Bank, explores the extent to which smaller businesses in the UK understand and are engaged with net zero.

In this the report, we examine smaller businesses attitudes towards net zero, the actions they have taken around this, along with their perceptions of the benefits that net zero progress can bring, and of the barriers faced by their organisations.

We have also used publicly available data to estimate the proportion of the UK’s emissions attributable to smaller businesses in aggregate.   

Key findings of the report include

• SMEs account for around a third (37%) of the UK’s greenhouse gas emissions, which are concentrated in a few carbon-intensive sectors: the 14% of UK SMEs that operate in these sectors emit around 84% of total UK SME emissions.
• Transitioning to net zero is a low priority for most smaller businesses over the next 12 months, including most of those in high-emitting sectors.
• Placing a low priority on net zero has not, however, deterred most smaller businesses from taking some action, with 77% of SMEs taking at least one action already.
• SMEs generally perceive that there are benefits to their organisation of progressing towards net zero, with 63% seeing at least one benefit, though a sizable minority see no benefits at all.;
• The perception of barriers to net zero progress, however, is even more widespread than the perception of benefits among smaller businesses.

Further details and insights can be found in this year’s report : SMEs and Net Zero 2025 report (.PDF, 3.61, MB)(Opens in new window)

Net Zero Census 2025:

The 2025 UK Net Zero Business Census was undertaken by the British Chambers of Commerce and PlanetMark and surveyed 2,018 businesses in August 2025. The topics included attitudes to net zero, actions taken to progress net zero, and perception of benefits and barriers to the organisation’s progress. This report analyses the 1,783 responses from smaller businesses, with the results weighted to reflect the UK SME population by business size.  

The Net Zero Census is an annual survey, running for the second time in 2025. Please see here for more information: The UK Net Zero Business Census - UK Net Zero Business Census