Sustainability for Dutch SMEs

Demystifying ESG as Sustainable Business Practices When a supplier portal asks for your ESG information, most small business owners think one of three things. “This is for big companies. Not us.” “We have never done ESG. We need to start from scratch.” “We are not ready for this.” All three are wrong. And the reason they feel true is not a failure of understanding. It is a failure of translation. The word ESG comes from a world that was never designed with small businesses in

Getting your team involved in ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) sounds straightforward. In practice, it’s where many small organisations quietly give up. This guide skips the theory. It covers what actually works for teams of 5 to 25 people, with no sustainability budget, no dedicated ESG manager, and real work to get done. You will find specific actions, honest data, and a tracker you can use from next week. If you are still figuring out which ESG metrics your orga

Most green workplace guides read the same way. Turn off your monitor. Get a recycling bin. Add plants. None of them explains which habits generate ESG data. Nor do they explain which habits are just good feelings with no reporting value. That distinction matters now. According to the US Environmental Protection Agency, 30% of the energy in commercial buildings is wasted. That number is not a design problem. It is a behaviour problem. The lights were left on in empty meeting

Practical Actions That Build ESG Credibility Many SME owners assume green initiatives are reserved for large corporations with dedicated sustainability departments and six-figure budgets. That assumption is wrong. In 2026, SMEs represent over 90% of all businesses globally and contribute roughly 40% of industrial pollution across OECD countries. Yet the most effective green programmes in Europe are now coming from companies with fewer than 50 employees, businesses that move

Most Dutch SMEs approach ESG reporting the same way: pick a framework, start collecting data, and figure out what to report as you go. The double materiality assessment is the step they skip, and it’s the one that determines whether everything else is worth doing. Here’s the problem that creates. A logistics company in Noord-Holland spends three months tracking biodiversity metrics because a guide said they were important under CSRD. A professional services firm in Amsterdam