The inaugural 2025 SME Sustainability Barometer, a study capturing the sustainability readiness of Singapore’s small and medium enterprises (SMEs), was launched in November 2025 by Gprnt and PwC Singapore. With the support of Singapore Business Federation (SBF) and Sustainability Alliance (SA), the SME Sustainability Barometer deep-dives into the challenges faced by SMEs in going green, and offers ecosystem-wide recommendations for how the public and private sectors can partner to help SMEs better capture opportunities in green procurement, financing and business growth.
SMEs are the backbone of the economy and central to Singapore’s low-carbon transition. Despite this, the Barometer found that three in four SMEs had yet to commence their sustainability journeys, citing constraints in money, skills and time as the top barriers:
More than half of SMEs studied viewed sustainability as hard to justify in view of tight operating margins and more pressing business needs. Four in five cited a lack of clarity on the tangible returns from their investments.
Three in four SMEs said they lacked the technical knowhow needed to translate sustainability into concrete action plans and demonstrable outcomes.
More than 40% of SMEs cited limited availability of time and resources, compounded by rising economic pressures stemming from geopolitical tensions. This leaves little bandwidth to properly explore the range of available programmes and opportunities.
Over 70% of SMEs have not accessed any form of government assistance or available support despite the availability of various schemes, which suggests persistent challenges in awareness, accessibility, and perceived relevance of such schemes. These findings highlight the need for stronger public-private collaboration to help SMEs get started on and stay engaged in sustainability.
As an immediate step, the Barometer features “tear sheets” that point SMEs to readily available resources, with future editions set to consolidate more assistance from across the local ecosystem.
"We must enable SMEs to view sustainability not as a cost to bear, but as a business strategy for securing their place in the carbon-constrained economy of the future,” said Ravi Menon, Singapore’s Ambassador for Climate Action. “Environmental sustainability will become an increasingly important driver of competitiveness and new growth, as climate change intensifies in the years and decades ahead.”
Already, supply chains and customers have begun to prioritise companies that demonstrate credible climate action, and they will increasingly do so. Going green has gone beyond compliance; it is now all about “staying relevant and resilient”, said Mr Menon.
The Barometer goes beyond these immediate measures to propose five sets of key recommendations that enhance the sustainability value proposition for SMEs. Delivering these will require stronger coordination across the public and private sectors, reflecting the shared responsibility of greening the SME community at scale. The recommendations are:
1) Help SMEs realise the value of sustainability
Only 10% of SMEs starting out on sustainability reported measurable gains, compared to nearly half of those in a more mature state. A central case bank that consolidates success stories, supported by data and benchmarks to quantify the benefits, could spur more SMEs to follow suit.
2) Help SMEs get started with clear and simple steps
Once SMEs recognise the value of sustainability, they need clear first steps. The Barometer recommends that SMEs designate a staff member as the “sustainability champion”. This person, who will be in charge of driving the corporate sustainability effort, can be guided by a simple and practical first-year roadmap to deliver quick, visible wins.
3) Help SMEs scale their efforts through flagship programmes
As SMEs progress, sustained engagement and incentivisation are key. Flagship initiatives like sustainability-focused Queen Bee programmes – where large corporates engage SME suppliers and customers to build green capabilities – have proven effective, with 86% of participants reporting business benefits from such programmes. These gains can be amplified through government leadership and tighter public-private coordination to expand green procurement opportunities for SMEs.
4) Help SMEs keep costs trim through shared solutions
Forty-six per cent (46%) of respondents have cited high costs of sustainable materials and solutions as a major barrier. SMEs can reduce expenses by pooling common activities to achieve economies of scale. Trade associations can also play a pivotal role in identifying shared challenges and co-creating sector-wide solutions with government partners.
5) Help SMEs be recognised for their efforts
SMEs should be recognised for their sustainability progress and be able to convert this into meaningful business and financing advantages. A unified sustainability “passport” can simplify this process by helping SMEs navigate fragmented certification landscapes and showcase their progress in a clear, credible way.
“When SMEs go green, they don’t act alone. They lift the networks around them – their buyers, suppliers, customers, and financiers. They green the value chains they power, and in doing so, generate high-quality data from the ground up,” pointed out Lionel Wong, Gprnt’s Chief Executive Officer. Collective effort across the public and private sectors will go a long way to make sustainability “not just viable, but valuable”.
