Small Business Sustainability Checklist

IFAC's Small Business Sustainability Checklist is a diagnostic tool designed to be tailored by each business according to its own unique circumstances, including its industry sector, lifecycle, and products and services provided. It lists a comprehensive range of initiatives and actions to be considered in terms of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) factors. Not all actions in the Checklist will be relevant to every SME, but the Checklist aims to help all organizations to take small steps on what could be a long but highly fulfilling journey.

Small and medium-sized practices (SMPs) are ideally placed to help SMEs on this journey because of their deep business knowledge and expertise. The Checklist was developed under the umbrella of IFAC’s work on Practice Transformation, which highlights the need for SMPs to adapt to remain relevant and serve a rapidly changing world. SMPs are also strongly encouraged to use the Checklist to begin their own journey and consider their strategy, policies, and procedures on sustainability. This is also critical to both attracting and retaining the next generation of talent.

The Checklist has been launched together with an expanded range of external resources to help practitioners upskill and build knowledge in this emerging area. IFAC has prepared a dedicated web page that provides material on sustainability reporting, advisory, assurance, and education and training.