Small and Medium Enterprises Essay example -- Business, Environment, P

inception environsal practices among Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) ar increasing being back up as the vital climbes that ar needed to shapes and sustains the surround (Schaper 2002 Hillary 2004 Redmond, Walker et al. 2008 Rasi, Abdekhodaee et al. 2010 Revell, Stokes et al. 2010). some large organizations have taken considerable steps to reduce or eliminate pollution that might occur from their operations. Small and Mediums Enterprises (SMEs), however, continue to be overlooked on it consequences on environmental management issues (Melton 1999). While, some SMEs are generally aware of the substantial impact of their operations on the environment (Williamson and Lynch-Wood 2001), most SME believe environmental initiatives as peripheral issues and may non be important to the organizational survival (Redmond, Walker et al. 2008) Ensuring SMEs to realize and perform its environmental objectives are crucial. The notions that SMEs are not yet engaged in the environmental prac tices are intimidating since the facts that most environmental pollution is originates from SMEs. An former study by Smith and Kemp (1998) identifies that 70 percent of manufacturing pollution are created by SMEs. The Marshall Report (1998) estimates that SMEs generates 60 percent of carbon emissions. much recently, a report for The European Commission, Directorate General Environment, indicates that more than 50 percent of commercial and industrial waste are produced by SMEs (Berends, Morre et al. 2000), whilst the UK Environment Agency estimates that UK SMEs are responsible for 60 percent of commercial waste and 80 percent of pollution accidents (Netreg 2003). Again, work by the Wales Environment Centre in rural Wales, indicat... ...tivities. The strategy requires a structural coronation in operations that involves process or product based changes in effort to gain a competitive advantage (Klassen and Whybark 1999). Compared to former strategies, proactive strategies imp ly creative problem solving and collaborative exchanges with stakeholders (Sharma and Vredenburg 1998). For example, organizations implementing proactive approaches base improve various managerial aspects by continuously monitoring their activities and study to optimize and utilize their green technological investment (Biondi, Frey et al. 1998). In addition, strategic collaboration with stakeholders enables SMEs to share tacit knowledge that are useful to nark a successful transition to new environmental technologies. Table 1 depicts the differences between a reactive approach and a proactive approach as discussed above.