From Information Providers to Sustainability Partners: A Practical Model for Helping SMEs Take Climate Action

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Small and medium enterprises repeatedly say the same thing: they’re not short of sustainability information — they’re short of the capacity to use it in real business settings. National supports tend to flood SMEs with webinars and PDFs, but rarely offer the hands-on, relationship-centred help required to turn climate knowledge into meaningful action.

To close this gap, I use a simple analogy grounded in something every business owner understands: the traditional industry sales representative.

Why the Sales Rep Analogy Works

In most industries, a sales rep is far more than someone who sells a product. They are a trusted guide who:

• interprets complex technical information,
• demonstrates relevance to day-to-day operations,
• trains staff on-site,
• solves problems as they arise, and
• stays connected long after the first transaction.

Their value lies in proximity, continuity, and trust — qualities that are critically missing from most sustainability supports aimed at SMEs.

This analogy helps clarify what is needed to strengthen absorptive capacity: the ability of a business to recognise new ideas, understand them, see their usefulness, and apply them in practice. For SMEs, this is often the biggest obstacle to climate action. They may have plenty of information, but not the systems, skills, or time to turn it into operational change.

Mapping the Roles

Industry Sales Rep	Sustainability Partner
Relationship building	Deep, ongoing engagement with business owners
Product storytelling	Translating climate actions into commercial value
Staff training	On-site coaching on energy, waste, and behaviour change
Technical assistance	Support with technology choices and grant processes
Post-sale support	Continuous carbon tracking and follow-through

A Practical Framework for Policy and Practice

This model offers policymakers, local authorities, and business networks a clear operational approach:

1. Treat sustainability support as a relationship-based service, not a passive information dump.
2. Deploy Sustainability Partners with the same embedded presence that industry expects from sales reps.
3. Focus on behavioural uptake, not mere awareness.
4. Use CRM-style systems to track progress, learning cycles, and measurable emissions reductions.

Ultimately, meaningful progress in climate action relies on sustained, on-the-ground engagement — people who show up, stay with the process, and help businesses take real action.

This material may be reused, shared, and adapted for non-commercial purposes with appropriate attribution. Please cite as:

Dreyer-Gibney, K. (2025). From Information Providers to Sustainability Partners: A Practical Model for Helping SMEs Take Climate Action. Concept developed and first published on katrindreyergibney.org