Better Business Standard launched to offer ‘affordable and procurement-ready’ impact accreditation for UK SMEs

A new business accreditation launched in the UK this week, with the aim of providing accessible and affordable evidence of positive societal and environmental impact, particularly to SMEs.

The Better Business Standard was launched by membership organisation the Better Business Network on Tuesday. The organisation said the new standard was anchored in the government’s business policies, helping small businesses to demonstrate they fulfilled the requirements of UK net zero and social value procurement models. 

We want to reach a large percentage of those SMEs in the UK, and get them taking actions which we know, at scale, have a real impact on how society is shaped

SMEs make up 99.9% of privately owned businesses in the UK, employing around 16.7m people and contributing over half of UK business turnover, according to the UK Office for National Statistics. 

Speaking to Pioneers Post, Jamie Bettles (pictured), commercial director at the Better Business Network, said small businesses often lacked the resources to fulfil the requirements of other impact frameworks and procurement processes, but given the right support could make a significant positive impact on UK communities and the environment.

Bettles said: “We want to reach a large percentage of those SMEs in the UK, and get them taking actions which we know, at scale, have a real impact on how society is shaped. This is hopefully a tool which is going to reach more businesses and enable them to do that, and to be able to demonstrate they are doing that.”

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Accreditation is awarded based on assessment of seven areas of a business: governance and transparency; people and culture; climate and environment; nature and biodiversity; community and social impact; customers, trust and accessibility; and growth and innovation. 

To qualify for accreditation, businesses must be a member of the Better Business Network. The cost of joining the network starts at £500 a year for businesses with fewer than 20  employees. There are currently almost 200 members of the network. 

The Better Business Network will provide businesses applying with resources and tools to measure and monitor their impact, and Bettles said at the end of the accreditation process organisations would have the information necessary to easily produce a public-facing impact report. 

The Better Business Standard website states: “The BBS is designed specifically for UK SMEs. It’s practical, affordable, and procurement-ready. Unlike global frameworks, it removes reliance on consultants and builds skills in-house. It complements, not competes with B Corp, ISO or others.”

Bettles explained the Better Business Standards were designed to sit alongside more “specialist” accreditations, like B Corp certification, to serve as a gateway into the mission-driven business movement. 

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He said: “If we can try and bring more people to those causes and those communities, and make them the norm, then you open doors to so many more people to look at things like employee ownership, social enterprise and how we use the profits generated by our businesses.”

Top image: The Better Business Network's Better Business Summit 2025 (credit: The Better Business Network)