The gap between the environmental attitudes and the environmental behaviour of small firms

Small firms are facing serious difficulties responding to environmental pressures. Due to their unique characteristics, small firms cannot be expected to employ scaled down solutions that have been developed by, and for, larger organizations. The indications are that the typical owner–managers of manufacturing and service small firms are struggling to bridge the gap between their environmental attitudes (aspirations) and their environmental behaviour (practices). Part of the problem would appear to be the domination of an outmoded paradigm that has created a set of values, personal and corporate, that is unable to cope with the environmental problems of today. However, the prognosis need not be pessimistic. There is evidence to suggest there are driving forces promoting change toward a more sustainable small firms sector. A number of emerging solutions offer ways to tackle the problem at the level of the firm, such as industrial ecology, and at the level of the institution, such as ecological modernization. The message remains that support for more extensive environmental education and training programmes and a much stronger regulatory framework would help to counteract the imbalance between the resistant forces and driving force that are presently widening the gap between small firm environmental attitudes and behaviour. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.