Join us for our weekly informal networking meeting – an opportunity to update each other on how our businesses are progressing, to meet new people and to ask each other questions in a relaxed setting.

Today we welcome Dr Renata Konadu, Lecturer in Accounting at Southampton Business School, to discuss “Tapping into the Financial Benefits of Sustainability Reporting.”

Research indicates that 75% of UK small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) struggle to embed sustainability practices citing cost and government policies as significant barriers. This presentation will highlight some of the key financial benefits that SMEs can gain from sustainability reporting.

The talk is part of a bigger project being carried out by Southampton Business School (SBS) to encourage the adoption of sustainability practices and reporting by SMEs. The research objective is to investigate the motivation, barriers, nature, and extent of the adoption of sustainability practices and reporting by SMEs. The survey results will be shared with SMEs at an event at the University of Southampton in April 2022. Following that, undergraduate and postgraduate students will help SMEs to prepare their first sustainability reports under the supervision of SBS academic staff as part of their studies.

SMEs can help the research team by completing the questionnaire on: https://soton.eu.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_aXnVdVLfElXZVv8. If you have any questions regarding the questionnaire, please contact Professor Ven Tauringana (Research Lead) V.Tauringana@soton.ac.uk or Gillian Saieva – Gillian.Saieva@soton.ac.uk.

We look forward to welcoming you online!

Please note that this is an online Zoom meeting and is free of charge with the sponsorship of New Forest District Council.

You do need to book by 1500 on Wednesday. You will then receive an email before the meeting starts with the Zoom meeting ID and password to enable you to join the meeting online.