Small and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs) are at the heart of the economy, representing the majority of businesses in the United Kingdom and the European Union, and employ a high percentage of people. With this positive impact comes an environmental footprint. SMEs account for around half (43–53%) of the greenhouse gas emissions, yet typically, they lack the support that larger organisations have in‐house and are often hard to reach in terms of engagement, policy and practical interventions. SMEs face a range of barriers to implementing carbon management and are still a misunderstood sector both in their approach to carbon management and how best to provide business support for change. This research addresses that challenge by investigating the impact of an innovative university‐led business support programme to help SMEs develop a carbon management strategy and practices. The research adopted a quantitative approach with a pre‐ and post‐intervention survey to gather data from 101 SMEs in the context of the Sustainability in Enterprise (SiE) programme at Nottingham Trent University, United Kingdom. The study shows that universities have an important role, and the SiE programme had a significant impact on SMEs' transition to net zero through policy and strategy development, resource monitoring, carbon footprinting, target setting and carbon management maturity. The research highlights the importance of business support for SMEs, specifically in carbon management, while segmenting based on size and sector to meet ambitious local, national and global net zero targets.

中文翻译：

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实现净零：大学主导的创新商业支持计划对中小企业碳管理战略和实践的影响


中小型企业（SME）是经济的核心，代表了英国和欧盟的大多数企业，并雇用了很高比例的员工。这种积极影响带来了环境足迹。中小企业约占温室气体排放量的一半（43-53%），但通常情况下，它们缺乏大型组织的内部支持，并且在参与、政策和实际干预方面往往难以接触到。中小企业在实施碳管理方面面临一系列障碍，并且在碳管理方法以及如何最好地为变革提供业务支持方面仍然是一个被误解的行业。本研究通过调查大学主导的创新商业支持计划的影响来解决这一挑战，该计划旨在帮助中小企业制定碳管理战略和实践。该研究采用了干预前和干预后调查的定量方法，在英国诺丁汉特伦特大学企业可持续发展 (SiE) 计划的背景下收集了 101 家中小企业的数据。研究表明，大学发挥着重要作用，SiE 计划通过政策和战略制定、资源监测、碳足迹、目标设定和碳管理成熟度，对中小企业向净零转型产生了重大影响。该研究强调了商业支持对中小企业的重要性，特别是在碳管理方面，同时根据规模和行业进行细分，以实现雄心勃勃的地方、国家和全球净零目标。