A Review of Interventions to Encourage SMEs to Make Environmental Improvements

Craig M Parker, Janice Redmond and Mike Simpson
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Craig M Parker: School of Information Systems, Deakin University, Burwood, VIC 3125, Australia
Janice Redmond: Small and Medium Enterprise Research Centre, School of Management, Edith Cowan University, 270 Joondalup Drive, Joondalup, WA 6027, Australia
Mike Simpson: University of Sheffield, Management School, 9 Mappin Street, Sheffield S1 4DT, England

Environment and Planning C, 2009, vol. 27, issue 2, 279-301

Abstract: Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are an important part of the world economy but they are thought to be responsible for around 60% of all carbon dioxide emissions and 70% of all pollution. SMEs often have major problems with limited resources, limited knowledge, and limited technical capabilities to deal with their own negative environmental impact. SMEs exhibit widely differing characteristics and commitment where environmental issues are concerned. Yet under these conditions they are all expected to engage in environmental improvement. Interventions that encourage environmental improvement are often polarised between regulation and legislation at one extreme and voluntary environmental agreement at the other. It is clear that a holistic mixture of interventions is necessary to achieve maximum engagement and environmental improvement by all SMEs. In this paper we categorise the different levels of environmental commitment observed in SMEs and develop a selection or ‘toolkit’ of intervention strategies that might be deployed within each category of SME.

Date: 2009
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:envirc:v:27:y:2009:i:2:p:279-301

DOI: 10.1068/c0859b

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