You’re about to sign on a new client you’ve been excited about and you see this in your inbox: “Can you share your company’s sustainability policy and environmental action plan?”
Your heart skips a beat. You don’t have one. You’re not even sure what they’re really asking for. Sound familiar?
Many small businesses face this exact situation, and there are several professional ways to handle it.
If you’re a small business in professional services – whether you’re a consultancy, marketing agency, law firm, or tech company – this scenario is becoming increasingly common. Larger clients are under pressure to demonstrate their own environmental commitments, and that scrutiny is flowing down to their supply chain, including you.
But you don’t need a 50-page corporate sustainability report and a sustainability team to respond professionally. Let’s explore your options.
Understanding what clients really want
When clients ask for your sustainability policy, they’re typically looking for evidence that:
- You are aware of how sustainability relates to your business and take it seriously
- You’re aligned with the client’s own carbon reduction commitments
- You’re not a risk to their own sustainability goals
Most clients aren’t expecting an advanced decarbonization strategy or certified environmental management systems from a small professional services firm. They usually want to see basic understanding and you taking a few key actions towards sustainability.
Response option 1: “Yes, we have a sustainability policy”
Best for: Small businesses ready to make a basic sustainability commitment
Creating a simple sustainability policy does not take a lot of time, and is often the most straightforward response. The approach to sustainability for a small business doesn’t need to be complicated, you just need a one to two-page document that outlines your approach to reducing your business’s carbon footprint.
A small business carbon reduction policy for professional services typically includes:
The key is being specific about your main impacts and actual carbon reduction measures, rather than making vague environmental commitments you likely cannot deliver on.
Sample response: “We have a sustainability policy that focuses on practical measures to minimize our carbon footprint. This includes our commitment to digital-first operations, energy-efficient office practices, and prioritizing virtual meetings to reduce travel emissions. I’ll send you our policy document for your review.”
Response option 2: “We’re currently developing our sustainability policy”
Best for: Businesses that have some carbon reduction practices but haven’t documented them yet
Many small businesses are already doing things that reduce their carbon footprint, like working remotely, using cloud-based systems, choosing energy efficient equipment, reducing business travel. You just haven’t called it a “sustainability policy.”
Sample response: “We’re currently formalizing our sustainability practices into a structured policy. We already implement several measures to reduce our carbon footprint including [specific examples of what you actually do], and we’re working to document these into a comprehensive approach. I’d be happy to share our draft framework and timeline for completion.”
Follow-up actions:
- Document your existing carbon reduction practices
- Set a realistic timeline for creating a formal sustainability policy (30-60 days)
- Use this as motivation to actually develop your approach
- Consider what additional carbon reduction measures you could realistically implement
Response option 3: “Here’s how we contribute to sustainability goals”
Best for: Service providers whose work directly supports client climate goals
If your professional services directly help clients reduce their carbon footprint – through digital transformation, efficiency improvements, remote work solutions, or other means – lead with that climate impact.
Sample response: “While we’re a lean operation still developing our formal carbon reduction policies, our core service directly supports our clients’ climate objectives. Our [specific service] typically helps organizations reduce [specific carbon impact] by [quantifiable benefit]. We see our greatest climate contribution as enabling our clients to achieve their own carbon reduction goals more effectively.”
This positions your climate value proposition around the work you do, rather than just internal operations.
Response option 4: “Let’s discuss your requirements”
Best for: When you need to understand what’s really being asked
Sometimes the best response is a question. Are they asking because they need to be able to say that x% of their suppliers meet a certain requirement in their public sustainability report? Perhaps they didn’t realise how small your footprint likely is, and wouldn’t have asked if they knew. What’s driving their request – internal commitments? Public reporting requirements? Getting to the bottom of this can help you unearth what they genuinely need, and how you can support them.
Sample response: “I’d like to ensure we provide exactly what you need for your sustainability assessment. Could you share more about your specific requirements and what’s driving them? Are you looking for formal sustainability policy documentation, evidence of particular climate actions, or information about how our services support your carbon reduction objectives? This will help me provide the most relevant information.”
Follow-up questions to ask:
- Is this for compliance purposes or related to a public sustainability commitment?
- Are there specific carbon reduction areas they’re most concerned about?
- Do they have templates or formats they prefer?
- What’s their timeline for needing this information?
The “don’t do this” list
❌ Don’t: Make up commitments you can’t keep
❌ Don’t: Download generic policies that don’t reflect your actual business
❌ Don’t: Promise elaborate sustainability programs you can’t deliver
❌ Don’t: Ignore the request, or seem dismissive or defensive
Creating your own small business sustainability policy
To help you develop a genuine carbon reduction/sustainability approach, here are practical first steps for creating your small business sustainability policy and action plan:
Week 1-2: Assessment
- Audit your company’s main climate impacts – which business activities are the most carbon intensive? It could be energy use, travel, use of the cloud, etc. Not sure how to assess this? Easiest way is to simply ask your favorite AI – ‘what are typically the most critical carbon impacts of a small marketing agency with locations in City A and City B?‘
- Identify quick wins that reduce carbon emissions while making financial sense. For example, The Climate Contribution Hub states that the following actions have been proven to be effective and no-regret no matter what your strategy is: procuring electricity from high-integrity renewable electricity providers, implementing office energy saving measures, purchasing refurbished equipment, and creating a travel policy or encouraging virtual meetings.
- Document what you’re already doing well for climate action. It doesn’t need to be anything sophisticated, a one-pager you could share with clients is ideal, which you could update once a year.
Useful free resources:
- Better Business Guide to Energy Saving by Carbon Trust helps you identify energy and cost savings which can be easily made with little or no cost, and explore energy hotspots such as heating, lighting and factory equipment.
Week 3-4: Policy development
- Create a simple, honest sustainability policy
- Focus on 3-5 practical carbon reduction commitments you can actually maintain
Useful free resources:
Use our free Carbon Reduction Policy Template download and tailor it to your business to get started, or use a tool like Sprig AI to have it generate initial text you can tailor to your business (it’s pretty good and completely free to use, we’ve written a review of it here).
Ongoing: Implementation & communication
- Start tracking basic carbon-related metrics (energy costs, travel expenses, which cloud providers you use and how much data is stored, etc). It’s a great idea to do a basic carbon footprint with a free good calculator (see below). This will give you useful data, which you could share with your client, but it also will also help you identify what data you need to track on an ongoing basis to be able to calculate your footprint again later, to track your progress.
- Communicate new processes to your team
- Hold a meeting annually to review your sustainability progress (has your energy use gone down? have you travelled less? have you followed your policy?) and look for more opportunities to decrease your carbon footprint
Useful free resources:
- Use the ICAO Carbon Emissions Calculator to estimate emissions accurately for any flights
- Use Seedling Starter to calculate your Scopes 1-3 footprint
- Calculate your digital emissions with the Digital Emissions Calculator by Small99
- If you’d like to be more advanced, or if sustainability is key to many of your client relationships, we recommend familiarising yourself with the VSME reporting standard, as many large corporates will use this to gather sustainability data from their smaller suppliers.
When sustainability isn’t your priority (yet)
Not every small business is ready to make carbon reduction a focus, and that’s okay. Economic realities, resource constraints, and other business priorities are valid considerations.
If you’re in this position, the most important thing is to be honest while staying professional:
“Carbon reduction isn’t currently a structured program within our business, as we’re focused on [other priorities]. However, we do implement basic efficiency measures that make business sense, and we’re open to understanding how we might better support your climate objectives through our work together.”
This acknowledges the inquiry without making commitments you can’t keep, while leaving the door open for future development.
The long-term view
The strong likelihood is that these requests aren’t going away. Climate considerations are becoming standard in business relationships, especially in professional services where trust and reputation matter.
Whether you develop a formal carbon reduction policy now or later, consider these questions:
- How might basic carbon reduction measures actually save your business money?
- What climate-friendly practices align with your existing values and operations?
- How could demonstrating climate responsibility differentiate you competitively?
- What would it look like to make carbon reduction a genuine part of your business story?
For inspiration and benchmarking, you might want to review how other SMEs are decarbonizing on the SME Climate Hub or check out a free sustainability course for SMEs.
Your next steps
Getting caught off guard by client climate questions doesn’t have to derail business opportunities. The key is responding professionally and authentically, whether you have a comprehensive carbon reduction policy or you’re just getting started.
If you’re ready to create a simple policy: Download our Carbon Reduction Policy Template and customize it for your business. It’s designed specifically for professional services firms and focuses on practical, achievable carbon reduction commitments. Or try Sprig AI, which is free and tailored specifically to small businesses.
If you need more time: Be honest about your timeline while demonstrating that you take climate action seriously. Use it as motivation to develop your approach thoughtfully.
If carbon reduction isn’t your current priority: Acknowledge this professionally while staying open to how you might support client climate objectives through your work.
