Last November, the main international leaders met at COP27, the United Nations Conference on Climate Change, to seek the best solutions to climate change in a context in which the negative effects of warming are intensifying, endangering the normal development of life. Despite this, 84.3% of Spanish SMEs do not consider climate change to be a systemic risk that will seriously affect them, according to Hiscox, an international insurance company specializing in companies, in its First Hiscox Report on SMEs and freelancers in Spain.
This lack of foresight in terms of sustainability is also reflected in the fact that 46% of Spanish SMEs acknowledge that does not have a sustainability strategy, despite the fact that this issue has been gaining increasing importance within business.
Only 31.3% of SMEs carry out sustainable practices
Not only is it that few companies design an action strategy in terms of sustainability, but also there are not many that carry out sustainable practices in their day to day. Specifically, only 31.3% of SMEs carry out sustainable practices and another 18% say they will do so in the future, which leaves 50% of the business fabric of SMEs that has neither incorporated nor plans to do so. of practices.
Among those that do carry out sustainable practices, the environment is emerging as the area in which companies operate the most and 70% take some measure designed to positively impact your care. Another 41.5% work in the area of society and 31.9% in that of governance.
When listing the Benefits Reporting the adoption of sustainable practices and policies, business ethics ranks first (40%), followed by reputation improvement (27.21%) and increased customer satisfaction (25.7% ). Despite recognizing the importance of sustainability in the corporate image, 64% of SMEs that carry out sustainable practices do not communicate them.
Additionally, 76.5% of companies do not have indicators to measure the success of their practices, so they do not have the real capacity to measure which ones work, which ones do not, which ones need to be reinforced, etc.
“In the current context, assuming sustainability as a pillar of business strategies is essential for companies, regardless of their size. It is evident that there is still a long way to go in light of these data, and that is that small and medium-sized companies are currently focused on facing the multiple current economic challenges. However, they should not neglect their actions in terms of sustainability, which can also have an impact on improving the business in the long term.“, Explain Carolina MoratoDirector of Marketing and Communication at Hiscox Iberia.
