Less than a third of UK businesses have a net zero strategy

Despite growing concerns for the environment, a recent survey conducted by YouGov on behalf of Veolia has revealed that just 29% of businesses have a strategy for reaching carbon net zero in the UK.

This figure aligns with the Chartered Quality Institute’s (CQI) recent member ‘Pulse’ survey, which revealed that only 38% of the organisations with or in which our respondents worked had a strategy for evaluating their awareness of environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors.

Quality professionals need to ensure business management systems, processes, controls and internal audits support the business to achieve these demanding goals.

Mark Braham, Head of Risk and Business at Veolia

The YouGov survey also found that 42% of businesses are feeling ‘overwhelmed’ by the steps they need to take to reach their carbon net zero goal.

Larger businesses (250+ employees) are more confident, with 52% having a net-zero strategy.  

Of those surveyed (over 1000 UK business decision makers), only 12% say they do not need any external support, with investment (40%) and government legislation (39%) cited as the most important types of support for businesses with a net zero strategy.

This support could also come from the quality profession, given that, according to the CQI’s member ‘Pulse’ survey, 86% of the quality and auditing professionals surveyed believe that they can help their businesses to deliver ESG goals.

Mark Braham, Head of Risk and Business Resilience at Veolia, and Chartered Quality Professional and Fellow of the CQI, commented: “Quality professionals need to ensure business management systems, processes, controls and internal audits support the business to achieve these demanding goals.

“It is not the environmental teams responsibility, to reach a challenging change in carbon net zero all business teams need to work together.”