Call it the pandemic effect, but the penny is finally dropping that environmental and social reporting is becoming the responsibility of all practitioners and companies – not just large complex organisations and their advisers. Johan Barros, EU Policy Manager at Accountancy Europe, explains.

“We take the climate emergency very seriously,” says Barros. “Sustainability is one of Accountancy Europe’s main priorities for the next few years. And this permeates into all areas of our work, including those that relate to SMEs”. Accountancy Europe is a pan-European trade association representing 50 European member bodies that reach about 1m members in total.

“It’s not a case of whether or not SMEs should prepare for sustainability reporting, it’s more a case of how they should prepare and at what speed,” he says. “We try to drill down into the detail and ask why sustainability reporting is so relevant for SMEs – especially at a time when they are recovering from COVID. But there are not just huge existential risks, there are also opportunities for SMEs because of the sustainability agenda. That is why we think sustainability should be at the forefront of SME thinking.”

Read the complete interview on ICAEW’s website.