The FinTech Impact Report: Working through the world’s to-do list #FinTechforPlanet 03 | BOOSTING ESG TRANSPARENCY 45% of UK SMEs 84% of companies report recognise it is incorporating ESG into FOR SMES important to lower business practices has their emissions in the improved their ability to raise 49 50 near future. investment funds. 87% of UK SMEs are unaware of their business’ total 46 carbon emissions, despite good intentions. And yet, the UK’s six million SMEs can contribute to up to 50% of the Know your impact: Vested Impact offers automated, impact assessment for UK’s net zero decarbonisation goals by 2030, worth an companies and investors, leveraging over 300 million science-based and impact estimated £160 billion in revenue.47 data points to assess what a company impacts outwardly, across over 169 UN SDG targets, aligning with global standards and regulations, supplying data to the likes The increasing regulatory burdens on large businesses of the United Nations, and currently expanding their platform to over 1.2m SMEs. are also flowing down onto SMEs in their supply chains. The proportion of major buying organisations that The role of FinTech in Net-Zero: Innovate Finance’s report identified several areas require their SME suppliers to disclose ESG information is FinTech can build a net-zero world that closely align to our findings here including 48 enabling consumers to take action and enabling financial institutions’ 51 expected to reach 92% in 2024. Incoming regulations compliance with climate risk regulation. It also called for adoption of science- like the EU CSRD will require reporting beyond just based CO2 reduction across operations and supply chains and advocated for the emissions and will include outward risks. FinTech is power of FinTech tools and technologies to enable other businesses to develop NetZero operations and products. already innovating in the provision of simple data sources and streamlined reporting to help SMEs be compliant and position for a competitive advantage. 31