Bronwyn is an environmental consultant, author and business advocate. Speaking at the Brisbane Business Hub, she urged local business owners to look beyond jargon and box-ticking, and see ESG for what it really is: a survival tool and a source of competitive advantage.

“I see so many small businesses disappearing,” she said. “Not because they’re not good businesses, but because they haven’t sensed the wave that’s coming at them and they haven’t been prepared.”

Bronwyn knows this terrain firsthand. From her base in Western Queensland, she runs an environmental consultancy working with clients across government, agriculture and mining. She’s a small business owner, a corporate ESG advisor, a mentor, a bestselling author, and an advocate for what she calls the “real spine of the economy” – small businesses.

Her own company was named winner of the Australian Business Award for Sustainability in 2024, putting her in the same cohort as companies like Fujitsu and Aldi. “A little tiny company from Western Queensland winning a national award… it shows we can make an impact as small businesses. You don’t have to be BHP or Rio Tinto.”

Turning risk into resilience

Bronwyn painted a clear picture of the pressures SMEs face, from climate change and cyber threats to shifting regulations and supply chain shocks. Too often, she said, the issue isn’t one of capability but preparation. “You can either get prepared now, or you can wait and unfortunately become one of those businesses that disappear.”

That’s where ESG comes in. ESG is a framework that asks businesses to look at their impact and operations through three lenses:

• Environment – how the business manages its energy use, waste, emissions and exposure to environmental risks. For an SME, that might mean something as simple as tracking electricity bills, moving to more efficient equipment, or reducing unnecessary travel.
• Social – how it treats its people and communities, from fair pay and safe work to diversity and human rights. In practice, this could include clear policies on workplace safety, flexible work arrangements, or ensuring suppliers comply with Australia’s Modern Slavery Act.
• Governance – how decisions are made and overseen, including ethics, transparency and risk management. For small businesses, governance might not mean a formal board, but it can mean documenting decision processes, separating duties around money, or having policies that guide consistent, ethical behaviour.

Unlike older concepts like Corporate Social Responsibility, ESG is measurable. It allows business owners to put numbers and processes around sustainability and governance, rather than relying on vague commitments.

For example, instead of saying “we care about the environment,” a business can track how much waste it diverts from landfill each quarter, or how much energy its new equipment saves compared to the old.

Bronwyn stressed that for SMEs, ESG isn’t about producing glossy reports to impress outsiders. It’s about building resilience and making better decisions day to day. “These things aren’t checklists, they’re actually decision-making frameworks,” she said. “When you start using them properly, you go from reacting to being strategic.”

Used well, ESG becomes a forward-looking radar system. It helps businesses spot risks before they hit, adapt to regulatory or market changes, and strengthen relationships with customers, employees, financiers and supply chain partners.

When the next inevitable crisis comes, businesses that have embedded ESG are more likely to survive and even find opportunity in the disruption.

Why ESG matters now

Bronwyn set out four reasons why ESG is no longer optional, and why SMEs, in particular, need to pay attention.

1. It’s the law. From January 2025, large companies with turnover above $100 million will be required to report on their climate impacts. “You might say, ‘I don't turn over $100 million a year,’” Bronwyn said. “But if you supply to a big company, you are in their supply chain. It is definitely coming.” Large companies may ask smaller suppliers to provide ESG information to support their reporting, or make ESG standards a condition of doing business. The same trend is already visible in the public sector, with Commonwealth and Queensland governments mandating sustainable procurement, and local councils following suit.
2. It shapes access to finance. Banks, insurers and investors are increasingly unwilling to back businesses that can’t demonstrate strong ESG performance. For SMEs, that might mean higher premiums, stricter lending conditions or even being overlooked for growth funding. Showing that your business understands and manages its risks, from energy use to staff wellbeing, can improve credibility with financiers and give you an edge over competitors.
3. It influences workers and customers. Employees want to work for organisations that align with their principles. “Gen Z and Gen Y, in particular, are very careful about where they work,” Bronwyn said. “They will take a pay cut to work for a company that reflects their values.” Customers are increasingly the same: they want to buy from businesses that treat people fairly and take responsibility for their impact. For SMEs, that can mean the difference between attracting loyal customers and struggling to compete.
4. It underpins trust. Governance – the way decisions are made, recorded and communicated – is often overlooked, but it is fundamental. Clear governance builds confidence with stakeholders, whether that’s regulators, investors, employees or the local community. In uncertain times, that trust becomes an asset in itself. Businesses that can demonstrate transparency and ethical decision-making are more resilient when scrutiny arrives or when relationships are tested.

Taken together, these forces mean ESG is no longer a strictly “big business” concern. For SMEs, it directly affects their ability to win contracts, secure finance, attract and keep good staff, and build the trust that sustains long-term relationships.

How to get started

For many SMEs, ESG can feel overwhelming. Bronwyn’s advice was simple: start small and keep it genuine.

The first step is to pick one policy or practice and put it in place. That might be something as straightforward as introducing a recycling system, or formalising a safety process. Once you’ve started, involve your team and make your values visible so the change doesn’t just sit on paper, but becomes part of everyday culture.

A key warning from Bronwyn was to avoid greenwashing. Greenwashing is when a business makes claims about being sustainable or ethical that don’t stack up, exaggerating progress or presenting marketing spin instead of real action. “Small, genuine steps are much, much better than trying to do a big step and falling foul,” she said. Tracking what you do, even in a simple way, helps prove authenticity and keeps momentum going.

She also encouraged businesses to make ESG part of their story in tenders, marketing and recruitment. Buyers, employees and customers are increasingly looking for evidence that businesses live by their values, and even modest initiatives can demonstrate that.

Her own consultancy puts this into practice with a culture book that outlines values, rituals and UN development goals. Every staff member receives it, and new recruits are screened against it. “If they don’t buy into this, they don’t get to come and work for us,” she said.

Bronwyn closed with a challenge: where does your business sit on the ESG journey? Are you an ostrich with your head in the sand, a tiptoe tester, a green sprout making progress, or a champion embedding ESG deeply into strategy and culture? “You can start your journey as a tiptoe, grow into a green sprout and then become a champion.”

Clarity, confidence and an action plan

For the local businesses gathered at the Brisbane Business Hub, the workshop delivered exactly what it promised: cutting through the jargon, breaking ESG into practical steps, and reframing it as an enabler rather than an obligation. It was a reminder that you don’t need a dedicated department or a massive budget to start embedding ESG principles. You just need to begin.

Participants left with greater clarity about what ESG actually means, more confidence to start the journey, and a realistic action plan they could take back to their teams. That plan might look different for every business – one company might start by tightening governance processes, while another might focus on waste reduction or employee engagement – but the principle is the same: progress over perfection.

As Bronwyn summed it up, ESG is not a burden, a fad or a distraction. It’s a framework for resilience, trust and competitive advantage when the world goes sideways.