Small businesses currently account for 50% of the UK’s business greenhouse gas emissions.1 Despite wanting to play their part in mitigating climate change, 90% of SMEs felt there were barriers to taking climate action. They said finding the right solutions and cash flow constraints to manage their impact were the top two blockers.

Key to reaching net zero in the UK will be collective action by SMEs. Tide made a pledge in 2023 to make it simpler for its members to get to net zero, by developing support for them to reach carbon neutrality.2

Tide is working on rolling out free access to the first batch of its 600,000 UK members to Connect Earth’s carbon dashboard, Connect Insights. The dashboard provides a user-friendly platform that increases awareness and understanding of sustainable practices. It provides carbon data estimates for every business transaction based on continuously updated and improved data models and databases, and personalised carbon insights empowering members to understand how their spending habits translate into environmental impact.

Throughout 2024 and beyond, Tide and Connect Earth will add further tools such as automated carbon accounting for bank transactions, invoices, and accounting data, more insights and recommendations, and ways to enhance business efficiency, by helping members to align reducing emissions with saving time and money.

Vinay Ramani, CPO, Tide said: “Nearly half of small businesses say carbon reduction is a high or very high priority.3 That’s an astonishing starting point and translates into an opportunity to really capitalise on a transition to net zero for SMEs. Tide’s partnership with Connect Earth will create a range of innovative tools to help our members measure, monitor and manage their carbon emissions in their Tide accounts. This technology and support is crucial to delivering Tide’s own environmental pledges and a significant step to helping entrepreneurs globally reach net zero.”

Alexander Lempka, CEO and co-founder, Connect Earth said: “Our partnership with Tide marks the launch of an incredibly exciting carbon accounting project. Together, we will give Tide’s customers the ability to gain insights into their emissions, reduce their carbon footprint and participate in reporting. By doing this, we are expanding access to climate data, contributing to the reduction of scope 3 emissions across the UK and beyond. This collaboration exemplifies how innovative partnerships can inspire and drive widespread sustainability, empowering SMEs with tools to make meaningful environmental impact. ”

Today’s announcement reinforces Connect Earth and Tide’s work as founding members of Bankers for Net Zero (B4NZ), which brings together the banking sector to accelerate the UK’s Net Zero transition. This includes their role as founding partners of Project Perseus, a B4NZ programme to create a solution to automate emissions reporting for every SME in the UK.

Tide is planning to roll out the products in India, where it has more than 250,000 members, and other territories as it expands, including Germany where it recently launched a live product. Tide has targeted a further one million tonnes of durable carbon removal (CO2e) from the atmosphere by 2030 by activating its powerful network of member businesses.