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When people think about climate action, they usually picture the big players: multinational corporations rolling out glossy net zero pledges or governments passing sweeping climate bills. The common assumption is that if the giants move, the problem will be solved.
There’s only one problem: that leaves out the single largest, least-discussed lever in our climate future - small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs).
SMBs make up 99% of businesses in the United States and Canada. They employ nearly half of the American workforce and generate 44% of U.S. GDP. They are not the side show of the economy, but the main event.
And their climate impact is enormous. Globally, SMBs are responsible for roughly half of all business-sector emissions. In the U.S. alone, studies estimate SMBs account for up to 60% of commercial emissions when you add up energy use, supply chains, and waste.
Yet in most sustainability conversations, they’re invisible.
That leaves SMBs in the cracks: too small for policy attention, too large to be reached by personal lifestyle tweaks. The result is that millions of businesses making billions of climate decisions every day are doing so without clear tools, guidance, or support.
When they don’t have the tools to measure or manage their carbon footprint, they end up reinforcing the status quo. When they do, they unlock an opportunity for faster, more distributed change than any single Fortune 100 pledge could deliver.
We don’t just need top-down solutions. We need bottom-up action - everywhere, all at once. And that means bringing SMBs fully into the sustainability movement.
Take LiDestri Foods in Rochester, New York. They’re not a mom-and-pop shop, but they’re also not a multinational giant. They’re a family-owned food manufacturer that supplies sauces, dips, and beverages to familiar brands like Newman’s Own and Wegmans.
LiDestri has taken steps to cut waste, improve energy efficiency, and even turn organic waste into renewable energy. But like so many mid-sized firms, they run into roadblocks: policies designed for giants, consultants priced out of reach, reporting systems that require expertise they don’t have time for.
And now, companies like LiDestri are being required to act anyway. Large buyers and regulators are beginning to push their reporting obligations down the supply chain, meaning that SMBs have to disclose emissions and demonstrate progress — but with a fraction of the staff, budget, and expertise that Fortune 100 companies bring to the table. They’re being squeezed from both directions: asked to deliver the same level of transparency and accountability as the giants, while lacking the resources and systems that make it possible.
Their story illustrates both the challenge and the opportunity. If companies like LiDestri - rooted in their communities and woven into local economies - can be supported with the right tools, their impact could and would be transformative.
Back in 2019, I was advising state policymakers on carbon accounting and carbon markets. What struck me wasn’t their lack of concern - it was their confusion. Even smart, motivated leaders struggled to understand how these systems worked. The rules were opaque, the language impenetrable, and the process complex enough to make most people tune out.
That was the moment I realized: if policymakers were lost, what chance did everyone else have?
The climate system as it stood was designed by and for experts. But the vast majority of climate decisions aren’t made in statehouses or corporate boardrooms. They’re made by small business owners, managers, and employees - the people running the restaurants, factories, and shops that keep our economy alive.
What they needed wasn’t another dense manual or a consultant on retainer. They needed tools that were simple, approachable, and built for non-experts. Tools that make it possible for SMBs to measure, reduce, and report their climate impact without becoming carbon accountants themselves.
That realization is what led me to start Aclymate.
Sustainability can’t just be about the giants. If climate action only flows from the top down, it will always be too slow and too fragile.
But if it rises from the bottom up - from millions of SMBs choosing efficiency, resilience, and responsibility - then we’re talking about a real movement. One that doesn’t just reduce emissions, but also strengthens local economies, makes businesses more competitive, and helps communities thrive.
LiDestri’s story shows that SMBs aren’t lacking in motivation. They’re lacking in systems designed for them.
We often say climate change is a global problem. That’s true.
But global problems are solved through local action, multiplied across billions of decisions. The war for our future will be won by an army of smaller organizations making smart, informed decisions. We need to stop pretending otherwise.
The untapped climate opportunity is right in front of us: unlocking the power of SMBs to lead the sustainability revolution.
They don’t need to act like Fortune 100 companies. They just need the right tools to make the decisions they already want to make. And if we can deliver that, we’ll discover that the biggest sustainability opportunity isn’t hiding at the top - it’s waiting at the foundation of our economy.