Size matters

Abstract

This chapter focuses on small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the UK. While it is irrefutable that, for many SMEs, legislative compliance is a matter of business survival, and is likely to be their single largest motivator, business-to-business pressure is another dominant factor behind the implementation of environmental management. According to a survey, individual SMEs are likely to 'have little effect on the environment but collectively their sheer numbers mean their environmental impact could be quite significant'. According to the EU definition, the SME sector comprises three sub-groups consisting of a 'micro' or 'very small' category, a 'small' category and a 'medium' category. If improved environmental performance is, in fact, the goal of corporate environmental management and if the current approach is escaping the SME sector, and then it is rational to conclude that the sector needs additional assistance to increase its uptake of environmental management.

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