Environmental, social, and governance (ESG) regulation is changing as regulators and governments wise up to its importance. As best practice continues to develop, accountants and business leaders need to keep abreast of changes to ensure that, where regulation is mandatory, they are on the right side of compliance.

That said, changes to ESG regulation are relevant to all businesses, not solely the large businesses currently mandated to disclose data. The reality is that small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) must be ready to disclose their non-financial data.