Robust carbon data creates real value for businesses of any size. While clearly essential for reporting and driving meaningful reduction, its impact goes far beyond that. At Matchtech, improving the quality of our carbon data has been a business enabler - unlocking better decision‑making, as well as commercial advantage and increased credibility with customers and stakeholders. In this article, I share what we’ve learned through that journey, why we took steps to improve our data and offer practical advice for SMEs looking to further their environmental approach.
From Compliance to Intentionality
If I rewind five years, our environmental approach was completely compliant from a mandatory standpoint - but we were lacking. We met SECR requirements, reported Scope 1 and 2 emissions, and included some limited Scope 3 categories. Much of that data, however, was based on averages and estimates. We didn’t have a clear strategy, a defined action plan, or a roadmap for improving data quality over time.
Looking back, it’s fair to say we harboured a degree of naïve complacency – that as a professional services SME, our environmental impact was relatively small and therefore our scope for action limited. Like many organisations in our position, we viewed carbon reporting as a compliance exercise rather than a strategic tool.
Today we are in a very different place. Admittedly still on a journey, but we now have:
- Full emissions calculations across all material scopes and categories.
- SBTi‑approved Net Zero and near‑term targets.
- A year‑on‑year focus on both emissions reduction and data accuracy improvements, treating those two objectives as equally important, because better data makes future action far more effective.
Why We Made the Shift
Lying behind this transition were several key drivers.
Purpose. Matchtech is a genuinely purpose‑driven organisation with a strong commitment to ESG. We strive to go above and beyond.
Collective impact. We realised that while our footprint as a professional services SME may be small in isolation, SMEs make up around 90% of global businesses. Collectively, our impact is significant, and that realisation mattered.
And lastly commercial, and we don’t shy away from that. Not least because that commercial value in turn helps justify and sustain our continued investment in meaningful carbon reduction. Improving our environmental approach, including the quality of our data, has become a business enabler. Most critically it strengthens our commercial positioning and customer relationships, but it also supports employee attraction and retention, and shareholder value.
Improving Data Quality: From Estimates to Actuals
What have we done? Gradually, step by step, we’ve been moving away from estimates and averages towards ‘actuals’.
As examples, our first focus areas were our offices and energy use - shifting from generic emissions factors and pushing for supplier‑specific consumption data. From there, we improved our data for business travel, commuting and homeworking by introducing an annual employee survey.
Most recently, our attention has shifted to purchased goods and services, where the majority of business emissions tend to sit. We are actively working to decouple spend from emissions by engaging directly with suppliers, enabling them to gain an understanding of our targets, requesting real data where we can and, where this is not available, supporting our suppliers along their environmental journeys.
What Better Data Has Enabled
What has this shift towards better data unlocked for us?
- Reporting & analysis.
It has allowed us to report and analyse our emissions with greater accuracy and confidence - for ourselves and for our external stakeholders. In turn this has reduced our risk of greenwashing by ensuring that claims are evidence‑based.
- SBTi targets.
It has enabled us to set targets that are credible and meaningful. Having those targets is perceived positively by our customers, particularly larger corporates with advanced ESG expectations.
- Meaningful carbon reduction plan.
We’ve been able to create a genuinely informed carbon reduction plan. Because it is built on better data, we’ve been able to communicate it clearly and embed it across our business with confidence.
- Informed actions.
Crucially, better data has improved decision‑making, providing evidence‑based insights, particularly critical where actions involve investment. In our case, this has supported decisions such as switching to renewable energy, relocating one of our offices to a more sustainable building, and identifying employee commuting to our headquarters as a key emissions hotspot, leading to collaborating with other nearby businesses to assess more sustainable transport options, as well as the introduction of an employee EV scheme.
- Supporting customers.
From a customer perspective, having more accurate data has been crucial. Our clients need robust supplier data to meet their own Scope 3 reporting requirements. To support them properly, our Scope 1 and 2 data must be accurate. We are seeing a gradual shift in customer requests from “Do you have a carbon reduction plan?” to “What was your reduction last year?” The depth and accuracy of our data is necessary to support this, contributing to client retention, and also helping us win new business with sustainability weighting increasing in bids.
- Brand & reputational value.
Finally, all of this has enhanced our brand and reputation, adding real substance to our purpose‑driven narrative. It has also allowed us to communicate transparently with employees about our progress, supporting retention and strengthening our employer value proposition in the market.
Final Thoughts
This journey is not easy, quick or simple. It comes with complexity and takes time. My two key pieces of advice to SMEs starting or progressing on this journey, however, are simple.
Start small.
It is very easy to feel overwhelmed by how much could be measured or changed. But this is a marathon, not a sprint. Build gradually. Add more categories over time. Accept that accuracy will take time to build. Don’t let perfectionism paralyse progress. Our approach has been to materially improve one category each year, starting with Scopes 1 and 2, then moving deeper into Scope 3.
Lean on your customers.
As is often the case with SMEs, our customers tend to be far larger than us, with greater environmental resource allocation and therefore further along their journeys. Reach out and learn from them. Don’t forget that they want and benefit from accurate supplier data. Early on, we worried that asking them questions would make us look naïve. In reality, the response is overwhelmingly positive. It shows proactivity. We’ve learned a huge amount through our customers, so much so that our current work on purchased goods and services is a direct result of those conversations.
Ultimately, better carbon data is not about perfection - it’s about progress, credibility and intent. For SMEs in particular it can feel daunting, but our experience has created tangible business value as well as environmental impact. By gradually improving data quality, using it to inform smarter decisions and treating carbon as a strategic issue rather than a reporting obligation, SMEs can strengthen their commercial position, meet rising customer expectations and future‑proof their businesses. The collective impact of SMEs is significant, and with better data, we are not only better equipped to reduce emissions - we are better equipped to compete, collaborate and lead.
