Small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) make up about 90 per cent of businesses and account for more than 50 per cent of worldwide employment, according to the World Bank. In the UK, they constitute 99 per cent of the business population, 5.6 million businesses, and are essential to achieving net zero by 2050. "We will not get to net-zero as a country without SMEs taking action now," said Louise Kjellerup Roper, CEO at the business and sustainability 'think tank' Volans. "No SME should be forgotten or left behind." A recent report by Volans and others involved in the Bankers for NetZero initiative identified a 'chasm' between early adopters and innovators who are willing to take a risk, and the 'early majority' of companies that are already aware of net zero, and are willing to act, but have not yet done so. This group constitutes millions of businesses, the authors estimated. Aquobex is one of them. The flood resilience specialist, headquartered in Oxford, is finding the barriers to net-zero progress hard to overcome. "There are hundreds of questions, even if you want to be proactive, and very little advice or real data to enable us to start on this journey," explains Managing Director John Alexander. "For those who don't care, it is very easy to not bother, and that is the danger."
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