SMEs 'struggle to reduce emissions'

Small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs) may be struggling to achieve targets to reduce emissions, one expert has said.

According to Professor Ross King, joint programme director of the Centre for Sustainable Environmental Management – Brunel Management Programme, such goals can prove particularly problematic for small companies.

Commenting on Cambridge Network's findings that public sector organisations are more successful in their sustainability endeavours than private firms, Professor King claims that the size of the business is a more influential factor than whether it is public or private.

The Cambridge Network revealed that while more private companies are part of the CRC - which used to be known as the Carbon Reduction Commitment - Energy Efficiency Scheme - the public sector actually performs better.

Explaining his views, Professor King highlights that many SMEs struggle to simply keep their business running in the current financial climate.

Therefore, sustainability can prove to be more of a challenge for those in this position.

"The difference between public sector and private sector at the smallest end has to do with the fact that the smallest organisations feel overwhelmed by what it takes just to keep a business running these days," he concludes.