Sustainability - Why It Matters to You and Your SME Clients

Objectives

You might see your role as an accountant to your clients as one where you prepare their accounts, their tax computations or perhaps do their audit. Increasingly though, technology will undertake many of these tasks to a greater or lesser extent, but that doesn’t mean your clients won’t need you.

We live in a rapidly changing world and helping to ensure that our clients have a business model which can cope with this is good for them and good for you. This course will look at some of the issues to consider and how you can help your client tackle them.

Key Topics

Setting the scene: why sustainability matters for accountants

• Trickle down effect of regulation
• Scoping of emissions
• Disclosure requirements for larger companies
• Physical and insurance risks
• Example
• Customer preferences and expectations
• Example
• Owners, finance providers, and staff expectations
• Costs and supply chain challenges

Why social responsibility matters to SMEs

• Owners’ and staff expectations
• Example
• Legal requirements (even if “CSR” itself is voluntary)
• Example

What might your SME client need to do?

• The role of the accountant
• Steps for the SME
• SWOT analysis including environmental factors
• Developing policies and frameworks
• Measuring greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs)
• Example

Identifying financial risks and reporting implications

CICs and B Corps

• Community Interest Companies (CICs)
• B Corp certification
• Supporting changes to the business model

Conclusions and actions

Who Should Attend 

Partners and managers delivering business advisory services to their clients.