Business Workshop Series
Climate reporting – no-one left behind
In 2024, the Federal Department of Treasury announced that climate-related financial disclosures will be mandated with business required to report at increasing levels over three years in areas covering governance, strategy, risk management, and, metrics and targets (including greenhouse gas emissions). Over time, emissions reporting would capture smaller SMEs providing goods and services to big business.
RDASW saw a knowledge gap locally and acknowledged that businesses, especially SMEs, may be caught unawares by the changes and disadvantage them in securing future work.
How we led and delivered
An opportunity arose to partner with the Australian Government Department of Employment and Workplace Relations (DWER) to access Net Zero workforce transition program funding and run a series of workshops for regional SMEs, working with small business training specialists, Industry Capability Network.
RDASW ran four face-to-face workshops (Bunbury, Busselton, Manjimup and Collie) and delivered an online session.
What did we want to achieve?
- Assist SMEs to calculate their carbon footprint and develop a baseline measurement of emission sources.
- Prepare SMEs for mandatory climate reporting which may impact them now or in the near future.
- Assist SMEs in preparing plans for transitioning to net zero and reducing their carbon emissions.
- Highlighting that making steps to measure and reduce emissions is good for business, keeping SMEs resilient and thriving.
Stakeholders and outcomes
RDASW used its networks for marketing and sourced quality presenters to speak to the workshop groups about the needs of big business or adopting sustainable business models. Speakers provided real-world examples, explaining their experience with measuring, reducing and reporting on emissions, to make the process more relatable and achievable.
80 businesses were reached via the program. Several participants have engaged further with climate activities after the workshop, such as additional training and consultations, demonstrating the workshop was a kick-start for businesses to begin their climate journey.
Key learnings
Overall participant feedback was positive, with some participants pursuing further education as part of their journey to reduce their emissions.
