SMEs, which represent nearly 99% of our economic fabric, are making progress in terms of sustainability. Actually, Today, four out of ten Spanish SMEs integrate ESG sustainability criteria. (Environmental, Social and Governance) in business management. This is one of the main results of the report “Situation of ESG in Spanish SMEs”, prepared by the Chamber of Spain based on the information offered by the 750 companies that used the ESG self-diagnosis tool developed by the institution.
The report classifies degree of maturity of SMEs in terms of sustainability at four levels: “initial” (the company does not apply or comply with any measures); “basic compliance” (compliant with the relevant regulations); “managerial” (in addition to regulatory compliance, the company establishes plans and objectives to improve management) and, finally, “strategic” (ESG issues are part of the company’s strategy and are overseen by the direction).
The analysis shows that The average ESG maturity of Spanish SMEs is 2.52 points out of 4. This implies that SMEs respect basic ESG regulations and move towards the integration of these aspects into company management.
One of the conclusions of the report is that the governance -which includes issues such as ethics and transparency, taxation or management of the fight against corruption and unfair competition- is the area in which SMEs have made the most progress. In general, The level of maturity on this aspect, with 2.63 points, is higher than that on social and environmental issues.
This is because a higher percentage of SMEs have already included governance issues in business management and strategy, 20% and 25% respectively.
However, the average maturity in applying a global management model does not exceed 2.34. That’s to say, SMEs are making progress individually in environmental, social and governance aspectsbut they are even further behind when it comes to having a model that integrates all these aspects and determines their management with specific sustainability management policies, systems and procedures.
The larger the size, the greater the progress in sustainability.
The study also shows that The degree of maturity in implementing ESG aspects is clearly determined by the size of the company. Below 50 employees, companies are closer to simply enforcing existing regulations than establishing more advanced goals and plans. Beyond 50 employees, more companies are determining measures to manage ESG issues.
Indeed, and in relation to the existence of a specific ESG management model, the report also addresses various questions such as whether the company carries out an assessment of its impact, whether it knows its stakeholders, or whether she communicates her actions.
There are still very few microSMEs that analyze the impact of their activity. However, as the size of the company increases, not only is the impact analyzed, but plans and goals are established in which the company’s management is involved.
Another relevant question concerns the communication that companies make regarding their social and environmental impact.since the majority of SMEs – whatever their size – communicate this information occasionally or in accordance with purely regulatory requirements, while a still small percentage offers public information on the management they carry out on relevant aspects of the sustainability through different channels such as: web, physical spaces, packaging, etc. and transmits its social and environmental commitment to its stakeholders.
