More than half (57%) of South West SMEs are unclear on what is required, and do not feel ready, to reach Net Zero despite large businesses making progress on sustainability goals, says a new study.
The UK has a Net Zero knowledge gap which must be closed if it is to meet its 2050 Net Zero pledges. 99% of the UK business community is made up of SMEs yet over two-thirds (69%) of those in the South West do not have a climate impact reduction plan in place, according to research commissioned by new sustainability solutions platform myCSO.
The report into the understanding of sustainability, and progress of SMEs on their Net Zero journeys was commissioned by Rimm Sustainability, a global B2B sustainability solutions provider to launch its new online tool, myCSO.
The one-of-a-kind SaaS platform has been created as an accessible solution for SMEs to monitor and manage their sustainability progress, as a Chief Sustainability Officer would, with an end-to-end suite of tools. It offers three levels of membership – Starter, Essential, Premium – and simplifies the journey to Net Zero using automation and AI.
myCSO Starter – a completely free tool – is designed to help companies begin their journey, with AI generated materiality maps, basic assessments, and a simple performance dashboard. This membership allows companies to begin to understand what types of data are important to collect and how to start thinking about their sustainability initiatives.
myCSO Essential gives an organization the ability to produce their first sustainability report. Features such as carbon calculator let businesses easily calculate emissions, create auto-configured assessments aligned to international standards, and produce an auto-generated sustainability report. This package is priced at £1,000 per year or £83 per month.
The final tier, myCSO Premium, offers more advanced tools, including auto-configured assessments to more complex standards (TCFD, SFDR, Listed Exchanges), advanced performance dashboards such as UN SDG, and other advanced analytics. The premium tier package also comes with advanced data management tools and cross team collaboration tools to aid the data input and quality assurance for more accurate sustainability disclosures. It is priced at £5,000 per year or £416 per month.
The founder of Rimm, Ravi Chidambaram, realized the need for a tool to help SMEs unable to take on a full time Chief Sustainability Officer, and is determined to help companies around the world reach their Net Zero goals.
Ravi Chidambaram, Chief Executive Officer and Founder of Rimm Sustainability, said: "Without significant change the UK and the rest of the world will not meet Net Zero targets. We cannot afford for this to happen, and we have a collective responsibility to change our fortunes while there is still time. To make starting and understanding sustainability, ESG and the road to Net Zero easier we have created a single platform which small businesses can use in the place of a Chief Sustainability Officer.
"We have worked extensively with sustainability teams at large and small companies all over the world to create a comprehensive suite of tools that will support businesses in all industries measure, benchmark and move towards a sustainable future. We have considered everything from functionality, simplicity, productivity, and cost when putting the platform together, and we believe that myCSO can make a genuine and immediate impact to the sustainability efforts of the UK's 5.5 million SMEs."
myCSO is already used by a number of businesses across the UK and world, including Ideation 3X, TCS John Huxley, Amansa Capital, Menicon, WOH HUP, Marsh McLennan, Frost and Sullivan, TUV SUD, BoardRoom, and plans to add thousands more users over the coming months.
To find out more about the myCSO platform, to start your sustainability and Net Zero journey for free, and to gain more information on Rimm (Real Impact Matters Most), visit, www.rimm.io.