The reflections in this article draw on Brandon Ristow-Wilson, Sustainability & Climate Resilience Services Coordinator at BIC Innovation. His perspective comes from practical work with businesses on implementation, resilience and sustainability planning.
One of the biggest misconceptions we come across is that sustainability fails because people do not care. In our experience, that is rarely the problem.
Most business owners and leadership teams we speak to genuinely want to do the right thing. They understand that customers are asking more questions. They know sustainability is becoming part of procurement requirements. They recognise the risks, the opportunities and the direction of travel.
The problem is usually much simpler.
Nobody really owns it.
Or rather, somebody sort of owns it.
That is where good intentions often stall. Sustainability becomes something the business says matters, but nobody has the time, authority or headspace to really drive it forward. So it gets picked up when a tender lands, or when a customer asks a question, or when someone says, “Have we got anything for the website about this?” Then it goes quiet again instead of being managed in a way that allows steady progress.
That can feel efficient in the short term because you have not committed much time or money up front. But in reality it often costs more. You are rushed, confidence is low, people are pulling together numbers they have not looked at properly, and while you are still trying to work out your position, someone else is already ready with a solid answer.
That is the missed opportunity.
It is the point Brandon Ristow-Wilson keeps coming back to. In his role supporting businesses through sustainability and climate resilience work, he sees the same pattern repeatedly: sustainability is added to someone’s workload, discussed when a customer asks for evidence, and pushed aside when day-to-day pressures take over. As he put it, “Without clear assigned ownership of sustainability with proper time, resource and authority, then nothing meaningful is going to change. It really is that simple.”
It is a fair challenge. If a business says sustainability is important, that belief has to show up in the way work is organised. If you are not giving that person time in their week, budget to work with, or the authority to influence decisions, you are not setting them up to succeed. You are asking for results without creating the conditions that make those results possible.
That does not mean every SME needs to go out and hire a full-time sustainability manager tomorrow. For most businesses, that is not realistic. But it does mean someone has to properly own it. Not vaguely. Not “sort of.” Properly.
The businesses that are in a stronger position usually are not there because they are bigger or richer. They are there because they have been a bit more organised. They have built a rhythm around the work. They have clearer ownership. They have looked at the data often enough to know what it is telling them.
That matters internally as well. One business is reacting every time a question lands. Another is using the same information to spot cost pressures, waste, inefficiencies, travel issues and supply chain risks. Over time, that difference adds up.
And then there is the trust piece.
Most people aren’t expecting perfection. But they can usually tell when something is just for show. A sustainability page on the website, a few broad claims, some nice language about commitment and responsibility, but nothing behind it that suggests the business is actually managing the issue in a serious way.
People notice that. Customers do. Staff do. Partners do.
As Brandon put it, “if sustainability is presented externally but not backed internally, it just feels like, well, greenwashing at the end of the day.”
Blunt, yes. But fair. That is the real danger of treating sustainability as a side task. It creates a gap between what a business says and what it is equipped to do. And that gap can damage trust far more quickly now than it could a few years ago.
For most SMEs, the first step is just being more honest internally.
- Who owns this?
- How much time have they genuinely got?
- What decisions can they influence?
- How often does leadership talk about it?
- What actually happens once reporting is done?
From there, a workable model might be quite simple:
- give one person formal responsibility
- protect a bit of time each month
- make it a regular agenda item
- link it to things the business already cares about, such as cost, customers, tenders or supply chain readiness
- get outside support where internal capacity is too stretched
That is often enough to move it from “something we should probably do” into “something we are actually managing.”
The important thing is to avoid the worst of both worlds: giving someone responsibility on paper, but no time, authority or support to do anything useful with it.
Through our partnership with Greener Edge, BIC Innovation helps businesses turn sustainability ambitions into practical action. Whether you are building a roadmap, exploring climate adaptation, or looking to better understand your environmental impact, we can help you identify the right next steps.
