74% of Irish SMEs want to reduce carbon footprint by next year

74% of Irish small to medium enterprises (SMEs) want to take action that will positively affect their company’s environmental impact, according to an Electric Ireland Business survey.

However, results also showed that Irish SMEs struggle to know how to drive impactful change.

As Ireland’s leading business electricity supplier, Electric Ireland continuously strives to better understand our SME customers’ ambitions in taking steps to reduce their carbon footprint, and how we can support them.

We surveyed 115 Irish SME customers on corporate social responsibility, sustainability and green energy issues. Although 91% said they would select a business electricity supplier based on their green credentials, 63% agreed they were unaware of 100% green electricity plans on offer.

40% of SMEs surveyed believe sustainability is important to their customer base. When it came to purchasing on behalf of the company, 59% of Irish SMEs said green credentials were important to them.

Small to medium enterprises want to reduce their carbon footprint

More than two-thirds of Irish SMEs surveyed said they wanted to reduce their carbon footprint, with a majority intending to introduce sustainable initiatives in their workplace within the next 12 months.

But 74% admitted they were unsure as to what steps they should take to address the issue.

Meanwhile, the continued rise of electric vehicles (EVs) is a talking point for Irish businesses in 2021. 38% of SMEs surveyed said they were likely to install EV charging points at their business premises in the future.

Trina Orpen, Electric Ireland Business Strategy Manager, said: "Electric Ireland welcomes the results of this survey which further demonstrates the interest across the SME sector in sustainability and green energy.

"We are seeing great interest from our customers in not only using green renewable energy but also in finding out how to be more sustainable in the use of their energy and in how to go about replacing fleets of petrol or diesel vehicles with electric vehicles.” 

Find out how our Electric Ireland Green Electricity plan can work for you.

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