Overcoming Barriers for Adopting Cleaner Production: A Case Study in Brazilian Small Metal-Mechanic Companies

Roberto Leite, Marlene Amorim (), Mário Rodrigues and Geraldo Oliveira Neto
Additional contact information
Roberto Leite: Industrial Engineering Post-Graduation Program, Universidade Nove de Julho (UNINOVE), São Paulo 01504-001, Brazil
Mário Rodrigues: ESTGA & IEETA, University of Aveiro, 3750-127 Águeda, Portugal
Geraldo Oliveira Neto: Industrial Engineering Post-Graduation Program, Universidade Nove de Julho (UNINOVE), São Paulo 01504-001, Brazil

Sustainability, 2019, vol. 11, issue 17, 1-14

Abstract: Small enterprises negatively affect the environment due to the inadequate disposal of manufacturing and raw material wastes generated in production processes; in addition, small enterprises do not often adopt adequate environmental practices due to barriers that include the lack of investment capacity. However, the adoption of cleaner production results in economic and environmental gains. The purpose of this study is to demonstrate how Brazilian small metal mechanical enterprises can identify and overcome barriers with the aim of implementing cleaner production. The research method used multiple cases with data collected by means of interviews and observations. The results allowed us to conclude that cultural and technical barriers negatively affect the adoption of cleaner production in the small enterprises studied. However, cultural and technical barriers can be overcome by means of economic and environmental gains as well as through investment in employee training and in the acquisition of more efficient machines and equipment.

Keywords: Cleaner production; overcome barriers; small enterprises; environmental practices (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (11)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/11/17/4808/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/11/17/4808/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:11:y:2019:i:17:p:4808-:d:263626

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().