Case study - ESG for SME’s

A family-owned SME was getting ESG-related questions from stakeholders, clients, suppliers… The management felt they needed to be able to answer the needs in a more structured way.  

There were initiatives ongoing in the area of E, S and G, yet not connected or prioritised. The company had no ambition to become a pioneer in its market on the level of ESG. They did wanted to stay in business, not risking to be ruled out by the bigger players or clients because it cannot answer questions on these ESG-related topics. 
 

Challenge

The company’s owner didn’t know where to start, what to take as concrete actions and how to decide on the priorities.  

He was looking for a pragmatic solution that reflects the limited resources, ambition and needs of his company:  

    • The as-is and ongoing actions should be the starting point. 

    • External support and in-house work should be in balance, with the option to choose how much effort the management wants to put into this along the way. 

    • A report would be a nice to have, and if it is being done, it should focus on the essentials. 

    • Considering the increasing number of questions from stakeholders, the project should not take months to finish. 


What did we do? 

In this specific case, a lot of initiatives were taken to cover Social matters. Important Environmental efforts such as measuring their Carbon footprint were not on the radar.  

Based on our analysis, the company’s management decided to continue Social matters, but with less focus. They wanted to pay more attention to measuring their CO2 footprint and reducing it with 25% in 3 years time. Along the way, the management decided to work on a ‘light’ ESG report that would stand out in their market. 

To achieve these results, BDO estimated the specific questions and tailored its approach to mirror the needs: 

Assess the companies’ business and strategy 

  • Mirroring the current and future origin of questions from stakeholders. 

  • Pinpointing opportunities and challenges. Discovering the root cause of the questions being pushed by regulation at bigger organisations, such as CSRD. 


Assist in deciding on priorities 

  • Guiding the management to decide what areas to focus on 

  • Use the Double Materiality principles (adopted by larger companies)  

Decide on the ambition levels and action plan 

  • Be realistic in the effort it takes to get the lead in making progress 

hours kmo


Time spent on this project

By the company

Meetings, interviews and check-in points with the owner, CEO and other team members of the company. Total time spent by the CEO was three man-days spread over four weeks, and two additional man-days by other team members. 

By BDO

Our experts worked eight man-days in total on this project.

After this project, the company requested us to assist them additionally in setting up a carbon footprint calculation, provide guidance looking for how to decrease their footprint, and support them in building a playbook and blueprint for a 3-page ESG report.   


Impact and results

The company especially appreciated: 

  • The pragmatic approach, being able to translate ESG in an SME context 

  • Full flexibility along the way, getting the option to limit or increase the efforts in each step, but only after explaining the pros and contras of doing so  


  • Having a clear and concise answer to current and future questions 

  • Being comfortable with the topics they will work on, knowing what to focus on, and what is less important for them  


Any questions about ESG? Don't hesitate to contact our expert Ignace Robberechts