The Hong Kong Productivity Council on Wednesday said small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) need to be more aware of the environmental, social and governance (ESG) standards used to evaluate a company's sustainability.

The council's chief technology officer, Dr Lawrence Cheung, said some SMEs neglect the social and governance aspects of ESG.

"Even for the environmental side, a lot of them may not know what kind of standards are available around internationally," he said.

"So a lot of them may just feel that they can just put some simple environmental measures and that would achieve a certain level of ESG."

Cheung said the council will hold personnel training courses as most SMEs lack the expertise to introduce ESG measures.

"Particularly a lot of exporters which are SMEs, more and more their buyers are demanding some sort of ESG elements in their operations," he said.

A new AI tool will also be introduced to help SMEs assess their ESG measures and compare their efforts with others in the industry.

"If they have some ESG elements particularly on the governance side, it actually gives them a lot more confidence in the eyes of investors, customers as well as the buyers," Cheung said.