As the year draws to a close, many businesses are reviewing financial performance, forecasting, and planning for the year ahead. But in 2026, forward-thinking businesses are going beyond the balance sheet and are starting to consider their environmental impact too.

With major sustainability reporting changes coming across the UK and increasing expectations on supply chains, SMEs will soon be expected to demonstrate measurable climate action. Preparing now protects your competitiveness and ensures you’re ready for shifting client and tender requirements.

For growing creative and service-based businesses, integrating sustainability into year-end planning is therefore no longer a “nice to have.” It’s fast becoming a financial and reputational necessity.

That’s where the collaboration between DASH and Boxfish offers real value.

Finance and Sustainability: Two Sides of the Same Story

At DASH, we help businesses gain clarity and confidence in their numbers, understanding what’s driving profitability and how to plan strategically for growth. Increasingly, those decisions are influenced by sustainability, energy efficiency, and climate compliance.

Boxfish supports their clients to reduce their utility spend, develop their net-zero plans, benchmark current environmental impacts, set and manage reduction targets and identify the actions to be taken to reduce their emissions. They help their clients go beyond compliance to unlock a range of benefits such as:

• Improved Bottom Line – reducing energy consumption not only reduces carbon but also reduces your overall energy spend, giving a boost to your balance sheet. 
• Staff recruitment and retention – staff are much more likely to join and stay with organisations who take a lead on environmental issues.
• Enhanced reputation and brand positioning – tackling sustainability head on can position your business as an organisation that shows environmental leadership.
• Creating a more resilient organisation – acting now and planning for how climate change will affect your business (and considering how your business will impact on climate change) will ensure you are better able to deal with any future impacts.
• Provide access to wider funding opportunities – having a clear net-zero and sustainability plan are becoming integral to unlocking support and funding from third parties and is now often a prerequisite for public sector tenders.  

The first step in this process is to undertake a focused Carbonbaseline assessment. By working to better understand your energy consumption and the associated Scope 1, 2 and 3 carbon emissions, Boxfish can help your businesses turn data into insights that support both compliance and meaningful carbon reduction.

For creative and service-based businesses in particular, the bulk of these emissions, and excess cost, often come from overlooked areas – digital tools, cloud storage, home-working, commuting, business travel, or inefficient office energy use. Understanding these hidden hotspots can uncover quick wins that save money without major investment.

A baseline also provides the foundation for a credible net-zero plan, identifying where you can reduce carbon at low cost, where efficiency measures will deliver ROI, and where future risks may sit – such as rising energy costs or supplier expectations.

Why It Matters for SMEs Businesses

While most SMEs aren’t mandated to measure and track their impact yet, understanding your carbon footprint and energy usage can reveal real opportunities to cut waste and costs. For service-based industries this means:

• Making smarter decisions about office energy use and suppliers.
• Demonstrating sustainability credentials to clients, stakeholders and investors.
• Aligning your business with the growing demand for ethical, transparent partners

Sustainability data is no longer just a compliance requirement, it’s fast becoming part of your brand story, your business values and unpins your credibility.

Turning Compliance into Opportunity

Boxfish and DASH share the same philosophy: that good data drives better decisions. Together, we help SMEs connect financial and environmental data – turning what can feel like two separate workstreams into one clear strategic picture. DASH provides financial clarity, forecasting, and performance analysis, while Boxfish translates carbon and energy data into actionable insights,  future utility impacts, and strengthen ESG statements for tenders and proposals.

When financial and environmental reporting are connected, businesses gain a clearer picture of performance, risk, and opportunity.

From a financial perspective, sustainability strategies can:

• Lower operational costs and carbon emissions through energy efficiency
• Strengthen bids and tenders where ESG credentials are required
• Support access to green finance or funding opportunities

And from an environmental perspective, it’s about making meaningful progress towards a lower-carbon future – ensuring that the actions you take today support long-term sustainability goals.

Conclusion

As you close out the year and prepare your financial reports, it’s the perfect moment to remember that financial transparency and sustainable accountability are both vital for long-term growth.  

Profitability, resilience, and environmental responsibility are no longer separate goals -they are the pillars of a future-ready business. By bringing finance and sustainability together, you gain the clarity to plan confidently and the credibility to stand out.

Together, DASH and Boxfish help businesses connect these dots, ensuring that success is measured not only in profit, but in purpose.

To learn more sustainable business reporting, visit weareboxfish.com or get in touch with Dash Accounting.